Effects of wetland degradation on bacterial community in the Zoige Wetland of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (China)

Abstract

Wetland degradation makes significant impacts on soil, and bacterial communities in soil are likely to respond to these impacts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of soil property, soil type and soil depth on bacterial community in different stages of soil degradation in the Zoige Wetland. Microbial biomass carbon was estimated from chloroform fumigation-extraction. Bacterial communities were evaluated by cluster and principal component analysis of DGGE banding patterns and sequencing of partial 16S rDNA PCR amplicons. Experimental results showed that microbial biomass carbon decreased with the soil types (Peat soil > Swamp soil > Meadow soil > Sandy soil) and declined with soil depths (0-20 > 20-40 > 40-60 cm). Bacterial community was affected by soil type more primarily than by soil depth. In addition, the microbial biomass carbon was strongly correlated with soil water content, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen. Sequence analysis of DGGE bands indicated that bacterial phyla of α-Proteobacteria, γ-Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Flavobacterium and Unidentified bacterium predominantly existed in the soil. All these results suggest that specific changes in soil property, soil type and soil depth affected soil bacterial community both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Microbial Diversity in Hummock and Hollow Soils of Three Wetlands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Revealed by 16S rRNA Pyrosequencing

“…The average porewater pH of the HY and DX peatland was 6.3 and in MD it was 7.8, which could explain the relatively low Acidobacteria abundances observed. In agreement with our results, a previous study also did not detect Acidobacteria by DGGE in peatland of Zoige plateau close to where HY wetland is located [14].…”

“…The microbiological research in this region has been primarily restricted to specific functional groups of microorganisms, such as methanogens [8], [9] and methanotrophs [10], [11], or microbes involved in other specialized processes [12], [13]. In addition, a few cultivation-independent studies using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting and limited clone library construction have been carried-out to assess the bacterial diversity in wetlands of this region [14].…”

Responses of SOM decomposition to changing temperature in Zoige alpine wetland, China

“…In a study of peatlands in northern Manitoba, Canada, Ise et al (2008) found that a falling water table increased the sensitivity of peat decomposition to temperature. Soil water content in the alpine wetlands was high, which depressed air diffusion, enzyme activity, and substrate availability (Rey et al 2005;Tang et al 2012;Wang et al 2010); this may have obscured the influences of increasing temperature and resulted in a lack of significant differences in Q 10 among different alpine wetlands. Moreover, the alpine wetlands were rich in high-quality SOM, therefore Q 10 values should not increase significantly until betterquality SOM is progressively depleted (Hartley and Ineson 2008).…”

“…Huahu Lake is the highest alpine lake in Zoige and has typical watertable gradients from alpine wetland to alpine meadow (Chen et al 2011). A decline in wetland area and water table has been observed in past decades in this region (Tan et al 2012;Tang et al 2012;Zhang et al 2011). …”

Differences in the Microbial Population Associated With Three Wetland Types in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

“…The drier marsh meadow and dry meadow lands had a better soil environment to promote higher plant diversity, with a more complex litter composition that decomposed faster, correlating with a fungal composition dominated by Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. Tang (2012) found that soil microbial community compositions change according to water logging time, plant diversity and altitude. Zhao (2011) inferred that soil microbial community compositions were different in different plant diversity wetlands.…”