Soil Microbiota of Dystric Cambisol in the High Tatra Mountains (Slovakia) after Windthrow

Alexandra Šimonovičová,Lucia Kraková,Jana Gáfriková,Matej Planý,Jaroslav Budiš,Katarína Šoltys,Tomáš Szemes,Eva Pauditšová,Elena Piecková,Mária Globanová,Domenico Pangallo

doi:10.3390/su11236851

Abstract

There has been much more damage to forests in the Slovak Republic in the second half of the 20th century than to other European countries. Forested mountain massifs have become a filter of industrial and transportation emissions from abroad, as well as from domestic origins. There are not only acidic deposits of sulphur and heavy metals present in forest soils, but other additional environmental problems, such as climate change, storms, fires, floods, droughts, are worsening the situation. Therefore, forest terrestrial ecosystems are becoming more vulnerable due to changes in natural and environmental conditions. In the High Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, which are protected as a national park, four internationally monitored localities were established after the windthrow disaster in 2004 and fire in 2005: REF, with intact forest; EXT, with extracted wood mass; NEX, with non-extracted wood mass; and FIR, the burnt locality. Soils from these localities were microbiologically analysed with special attention to fungi. Bacterial microbiota detected by high-throughput sequencing showed the prevalence of the genera Acidothermus, Mycobacterium, and Nocardia, and a very low presence of the genera Acidibacter, Burkholderia-Paraburkholderia, Optitus and the uncultured genus Desulfurellaceae H16 in the soil sample from the burnt locality when compared with the unburned sites. Additionally, soil mycocoenoses showed a low similarity between the locality with an intact forest ecosystem and the localities with extracted (REF–EXT) and non-extracted (REF–NEX) wood mass. There was no similarity with the burnt locality (FIR), where heat-resistant fungi dominated. It was shown that the windthrow disaster and subsequent extraction or non-extraction of wood mass did not affect the soil microbial communities or their development. On the other hand, the influence of fire was significant.

Highlights

Forest ecosystems worldwide are damaged by a variety of agents, resulting in the destruction of individual trees and sometimes the decline of entire forest complexes [1]
Extracted (EXT) and burnt (FIR) plots showed more significant increases compared to plots with intact forest (REF) and those with non-extracted wood mass (NEX), which was caused by wood extraction at the plot EXT and by fire ash at the plot FIR
Despite the fact that the taxa of Archaeorhizomyces are considered to be ubiquitous and are detected in many soil ecosystems worldwide [71], our study revealed its relatively low abundance (1.25%) in the NEX locality and the highest (13.87%) in the FIR locality

Summary

Introduction

Forest ecosystems worldwide are damaged by a variety of agents, resulting in the destruction of individual trees and sometimes the decline of entire forest complexes [1]. Extreme events such as storms, flooding, droughts, and heatwaves, together with anthropogenic interventions, are considered to be the most perilous threats in many European regions. All terrestrial ecosystems are becoming more vulnerable due to changes in natural and environmental conditions. The loss of ecological functions in forest terrestrial ecosystems is a very sensitive topic, especially in protected areas with a high level of nature conservation [2], such as the High Tatras National Park in Slovakia. The climate variation influences the adaptive capacity of the ecosystem to respond to potential impacts, as well as its sensitivity [3,4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion