Abstract
It is urgent to recover Bohai Bay costal wetland ecosystem because of covering a large area of severe saline-alkali soil. To explore the relationship between halophyte herbaceous succession and microbial community structure, we chose four local communities which played an important role in improving soil microenvironment. We performed phospholipid fatty acid analysis, measured soil parameters, and evaluated shifts of microbial community structure. Results showed that microbial community structure changed significantly along succession and bacteria community was dominant. Total phospholipid fatty acid content increased in different successional stages but decreased with depth, with similar variations in bacterial and fungal biomass. Soil organic carbon and especially total nitrogen were positively correlated with microbial biomass. Colonization of pioneering salt-tolerant plantsSuaeda glaucain saline-alkali bare land changed total soil microorganism content and composition. These results showed that belowground processes were strongly related with aboveground halophyte succession. Fungal/bacterial ratio, Gram-negative/Gram-positive bacteria ratio, total microbial biomass, and fungi and bacteria content could indicate the degree of succession stages in Bohai Bay wetland ecosystem. And also these findings demonstrated that microbial community biomass and composition evolved along with vegetation succession environmental variables.
Highlights
Vegetation, soil, and microbes depend on and restrict each other [1]
Variation in total nitrogen (TN) followed the same pattern as Soil organic carbon (SOC)
The results showed that all types of microbial communities were positively correlated with SOC and TN but negatively correlated with C/N ratio, soil moisture content, and bulk density (Table 3)
Summary
Microbes are sensitive to external environmental changes, and the most remarkable characteristic is the ability to change the community structure [2]. Studies on examining an extreme saline-alkali wetland ecosystem are rare. On account of different climate and soil conditions from inland, the vegetation has unique characteristics. Main local halophyte in study site included Suaeda glauca and Phragmites australis. Suaeda glauca is a kind of leafy succulent plant that can accumulate salt ions. Such a strong alkali euhalophyte can decrease the salt content of topsoil during growing season. Phragmites australis is a kind of salt-excluding plant which can reduce its own salt concentration through physiological structure of cell membrane in roots [10]
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