Effects of Land Use Type Transformation on the Structure and Diversity of Soil Bacterial Communities

Abstract

Soil microbiota are significantly influenced by their microenvironments. Therefore, to understand the impacts of various land use patterns on the diversity and composition of soil bacterial communities, this study focused on three typical land use types—NF (natural forest), AF (artificial forests), and FL (farmland)—in the Heilongjiang Central Station Black-billed Capercaillie National Nature Reserve, located in the southwestern part of Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province, China. Using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, we examined the soil bacterial community structures in these different land use types and explored their correlation with soil environmental factors. The following were our main observations: (1) Significant variations in soil chemical properties among different land use patterns were observed. In artificial forests, total nitrogen (TN), alkali hydrolyzed nitrogen (AN), total phosphorus (TP), and available phosphorus (AP) were higher compared to farmland and significantly higher than those in natural forests. Furthermore, the organic carbon content (SOC) in natural forests was higher than in artificial forests and significantly higher than in farmland. (2) Comparative analysis using the Shannon and Simpson indices revealed that bacterial community diversity was higher in artificial forests than in natural forests, which was significantly higher than in farmland. (3) The effect of different land use types on soil bacterial community structure was not significant. The three land types were dominated by Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria. Proteobacteria exhibited a higher relative abundance in farmland and artificial forests compared to natural forests, whereas Actinobacteria exhibited the lowest relative abundance in natural forests. (4) Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that SOC, TN, AN, and AP were key environmental factors influencing the microbial communities of soil. Collectively, our findings demonstrated that land use practices can significantly alter soil nutrient levels, thereby influencing the structure of bacterial communities.

Variation in soil bacterial community characteristics inside and outside the West Ordos National Nature Reserve, northern China

“…The core phyla of the soil bacterial network structure changed as the protection measures became stricter ( Qiu et al, 2022 ). The core phylum of the soil bacterial network structure of different vegetation types in the core protected zone was Acidobacteriota, while the core phylum of the soil bacterial network structure of different vegetation types in the general controlled zone and outside the protected areas was different, which may be due to the different intensities of human activities in the two zones ( Hua et al, 2024 ). The correlation between various types of soil bacteria also changes with the environment, and it has been found that the correlation between various types of soil bacteria in different stages of soil development showed significant differences due to different environments ( Dini-Andreote et al, 2014 ).…”

The Diversity and Composition of Soil Microbial Communities Differ in Three Land Use Types of the Sanjiang Plain, Northeastern China

“…Changes in land use, such as wetland conversion to farmland, can significantly impact the composition and function of soil microbial community [9]. For example, Hua et al [10] found that the relative abundance of Acidobacteria in plantation forests was significantly higher than that in agricultural fields, and the ratio of soil fungi to bacteria also changed significantly. Zhu et al [11] reported that soil bacterial compositions and functions differed between wetlands and croplands under long-term human activity disturbance.…”