Shifts in Soil Microbial Community Composition, Function, and Co-occurrence Network of Phragmites australis in the Yellow River Delta.

Abstract

Soil microorganisms play vital roles in regulating biogeochemical processes. The composition and function of soil microbial community have been well studied, but little is known about the responses of bacterial and fungal communities to different habitats of the same plant, especially the inter-kingdom co-occurrence pattern including bacteria and fungi. Herein, we used high-throughput sequencing to investigate the bacterial and fungal communities of five Phragmites australis habitats in the Yellow River Delta and constructed their inter-kingdom interaction network by network analysis. The results showed that richness did not differ significantly among habitats for either the bacterial or fungal communities. The distribution of soil bacterial community was significantly affected by soil physicochemical properties, whereas that of the fungal community was not. The main functions of the bacterial and fungal communities were to participate in the degradation of organic matter and element cycling, both of which were significantly affected by soil physicochemical properties. Network analysis revealed that bacteria and fungi participated in the formation of networks through positive interactions; the role of intra-kingdom interactions were more important than inter-kingdom interactions. In addition, rare species acted as keystones played a critical role in maintaining the network structure, while likely played an important role in maintaining the network topological properties. Our findings provided insights into the inter-kingdom microbial co-occurrence network and response of the soil microbial community composition and function to different P. australis habitats in coastal wetlands, which will deepen our insights into microbial community assembly in coastal wetlands.