Abstract
Numerous studies have implicated urbanization as a major cause of loss of biodiversity. Most of them have focused on plants and animals, even though soil microorganisms make up a large proportion of that biodiversity. However, it is unclear how the soil bacterial community is affected by urban development. Here, paired-end Illumina sequencing of the 16 S rRNA gene at V4 region was performed to study the soil microbial community across Beijing’s built-up area. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Verrucomicrobia, Planctomycetes, and Chloroflexi were the dominant phyla in all samples, but the relative abundance of these phyla differed significantly across these concentric zones. The diversity and composition of the soil bacterial community were found to be closely correlated with soil pH. Variance partitioning analysis suggested that urban ring roads contributed 5.95% of the bacterial community variation, and soil environmental factors explained 17.65% of the variation. The results of the current work indicate that urban development can alter the composition and diversity of the soil microbial community, and showed pH to be a key factor in the shaping of the composition of the soil bacterial community. Urban development did have a strong impact on the bacterial community of urban soil in Beijing.
Highlights
The diversity of microbes in soil is enormous and complex[10,18], and many studies have attempted to determine how soil microbes might be influenced by biotic and abiotic factors
It is here speculated that urban development can significantly alter the soil microbial community
Results indicated that all the areas studied had the same dominant phyla, but relative abundance differed significantly
Summary
The diversity of microbes in soil is enormous and complex[10,18], and many studies have attempted to determine how soil microbes might be influenced by biotic and abiotic factors. Some studies have shown that climate change factors, including elevated CO2, temperature and precipitation, can influence the composition of soil microbial community in some specific ecosystems[32,33,34,35]. Yuan et al stated that precipitation would be an important factor for changes of soil bacterial communities[36] In this way, soil microbial communities can be influenced by a large number of factors, but the driving factor may be different in different ecosystems. Barberán et al found that the microbes present in dust did not differ significantly between the areas within and outside of cities[46] It remains unclear how urban development influences soil microbial communities. Ring roads, which here serve as indicators of urban expansion, were established in different years They are associated with residential areas of different ages, population densities, and related socioeconomic variables.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call