Variation in soil geochemical properties and microbial communities in areas under land developed for educational use (university and other campuses)

Abstract

AbstractDuring land development, some important changes take place in the soil environment. Understanding these responses is of great significance for solving local and global environmental issues caused during land development. Till now, studies within education parks or university/college towns, especially inside and outside of a campus, were rarely reported. Herein, treating a campus as a semi‐open and coupled system, we collected soil samples (109 sites) inside and outside of a campus to reveal the variation in their soil‐geochemical parameters, available microelements, and microbial communities. Results shown that soil samples inside of the campus had lower pH (p < .05), and had 0.6–0.9‐times as much soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen/phosphorus/potassium (TN/TP/TK), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+‐N), and available phosphorus/potassium (AvP/AvK) as samples from outside. However, most of the available microelements (ExchCa, AvMn, AvCu, AvSi and AvS) were slightly higher (1.0–1.2‐times) than for soil samples collected from outside, except for exchangeable magnesium (ExchMg), available iron and boron (AvFe and AvB). The soil microbial communities (8 phylum and 10 genus with the relative abundance ≥1%) possessed higher richness but lower diversity inside of the campus. This study provides an insight into responses of soil environments where there is land development for education.