Responses of Microbial Communities and Interaction Networks to Different Management Practices in Tea Plantation Soils

Lin Tan,Ye Deng,Songsong Gu,Wenjun Xiao,Qiulong Hu,Zhonghua Liu,Zhihua Gong,Zuohua Ren,Shi Li

doi:10.3390/su11164428

Abstract

Soil microorganisms play important roles in the plant health and agricultural production. However, little is known about the complex responses of microbial communities and interaction networks to different agricultural management practices in tea plantation soils. In the present study, Illumina Miseq high-throughput sequencing technology and molecular ecological network (MEN) analysis were used to investigate the soil microbial diversity, community structure and composition, interaction networks of organic tea plantation (OTP), non-polluted tea plantation (NPTP) and conventional tea plantation (CTP). Alpha-diversity indices, Chao1 and richness, of OTP soil were significantly higher than those of NPTP and CTP soils. The beta-diversity analysis showed there were significant differences among bacterial community structures of OTP, NPTP and CTP soils. Composition analysis showed that Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Chloroflexi were the most dominant bacteria in all tea plantation soil samples under different management practices, and the beneficial community compositions of OTP soil were significantly different from NPTP and CTP soils at the phylum and genus levels. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and mantel test revealed that TOC and NO3-N contents as well as pH values were the key soil factors to affect the bacterial community structures of tea plantation soils. Furthermore, network analysis showed that the network of OTP soil possessed more functionally interrelated microbial modules than NPTP and CTP soils, indicating that OTP soil possessed the higher ecosystem multi-functionality. These results provided the theoretical basis and reference for improving soil microbial diversity and enhancing community multi-functionality in tea plantation soil ecosystems through effective agricultural management practices.

Highlights

As the world’s largest tea (Camellia sinensis) producer and exporter, China is the first country to discover, utilize and cultivate tea plants in the world [1]
The results showed that the alpha-diversity of soil community was ranked as follows: organic tea plantation (OTP) > non-polluted tea plantation (NPTP) > CPT, indicating that there were significant differences for bacterial diversity among OTP, conventional tea plantation (CTP) and NPTP soils (p < 0.05)
The dissimilarity tests of bacterial communities in tea plantation soils under different management practices were carried out using ANONISM and MRPP based on Bray-Curtis distance, and the results showed that there were significant differences in soil bacterial communities among OTP, NPTP and CTP soils (Table S1)

Summary

Introduction

As the world’s largest tea (Camellia sinensis) producer and exporter, China is the first country to discover, utilize and cultivate tea plants in the world [1]. It is well known that organic agricultural management practices have significant positive effects on improving the soil structure with the increase of soil organic matter content [6,7], decreasing the soil erosion and soil nutrient loss [8]. One of the major challenges for organic agricultural management practice is to enhance the soil nutrient availability by improving soil physicochemical properties [9]. It is necessary to improve the quality of tea and enhance the soil fertility to achieve sustainable development of tea production through the application of effective agricultural management practices [10]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion