Spartina alterniflora raised soil sulfide content by regulating sulfur cycle-associated bacteria in the Jiuduansha Wetland of China

Chiquan He,Xueping Chen,Zhenzhen Zhao,Daoyuan Wang,Liyu Cheng,Zhengyu Wang,Xiaoyan Liu,Pu Zhang,Xiaoxi Wang,Feifei Wang

doi:10.1007/s11104-021-05154-x

Abstract

PurposeThe Spartina alterniflora invasion across the southeast coast in China significantly reduced vegetation diversity and generated associated ecological problems. Sulfur (S) is a vital nutrient, while sulfide is phytotoxic and the impact of S. alterniflora invasion on soil S cycle remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impacts of S. alterniflora invasion on the S cycle and associated soil microbial communities.MethodsBoth field investigation and lab-scale experiments were conducted, analyzing soil sulfide and sulfate contents, soil properties over four seasons in the Jiuduansha Wetland of Shanghai, China, the high-throughput sequencing of soil microbial communities, S cycle-related functional genes and seed germination experiments.ResultsThe contents of sulfide, soil organic carbon (SOC), and total nitrogen (TN) in the bulk soil of S. alterniflora invaded area were higher than those in the native species S. mariqueter habitat and bare mudflat soils. Spartina alterniflora invasion increased the abundance of the Nitrospiraceae and Desulfarculaceae families and reduced that of Hydrogenophilaceae. The relative abundance of the SO42− reduction functional genes (dsrA + dsrB) in the soil was increased after S. alterniflora invasion, while that of the S oxidation functional genes (yedZ + soxY) in the soil was reduced. Seed germination experiments with different sodium sulfide concentrations (Na2S) revealed that the phytotoxicity of sulfide caused more lethal damage to S. mariqueter than to S. alterniflora.ConclusionThe S. alterniflora invasion significantly increased SOC and TN contents and reduced the abundance of sulfur-oxidizing functional genes, which led to the accumulation of soil sulfide.

Highlights

Plant invasion can dramatically reduce the biodiversity of the native ecosystem by dramatically reducing the abundance and survival rate of native species (Mack et al 2000)
We found that the invasion of S. alterniflora promoted the microbial sulfur reduction process by increasing the relative abundance of the dsrB functional gene in the soil and changing their community structure (Fig. 5C), but insignificant change was found in the relative abundance of dsrA, thereby led to the increase of soil sulfide content (Fig. 2A)
We found that S. alterniflora invasion significantly altered the physicochemical properties of the soil and sulfur-related bacterial community

Summary

Introduction

Plant invasion can dramatically reduce the biodiversity of the native ecosystem by dramatically reducing the abundance and survival rate of native species (Mack et al 2000). It generate ecosystem degradation by altering both soil nutrient cycling processes and hydrological parameters (Sanderson et al 2001; Wang et al 2020; Li et al 2021). Previous research indicated that increased organic matter input could result in higher soil sulfide levelsby increasing S mineralization and offering substrate for sulfur-reducing bacteria (Scherer 2009). The plant S storage in S. alterniflora tissues was found significantly higher than that in native species (Chambers et al 1998; Zhou et al 2009)

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