Land-use types and soil chemical properties influence soil microbial communities in the semiarid Loess Plateau region in China

Abstract

Similar land-use types usually have similar soil properties, and, most likely, similar microbial communities. Here, we assessed whether land-use types or soil chemical properties are the primary drivers of soil microbial community composition, and how changes in one part of the ecosystem affect another. We applied Ion Torrent sequencing to the bacterial and fungal communities of five different land-use (vegetation) types in the Loess Plateau of China. We found that the overall trend of soil quality was natural forest > plantation > bare land. Dominant bacterial phyla consisted of Proteobacteria (42.35%), Actinobacteria (15.61%), Acidobacteria (13.32%), Bacteroidetes (8.43%), and Gemmatimonadetes (6.0%). The dominant fungi phyla were Ascomycota (40.39%), Basidiomycota (38.01%), and Zygomycota (16.86%). The results of Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) and Redundancy Analysis (RDA) based on land-use types displayed groups according to the land-use types. Furthermore, the bacterial communities were mainly organized by soil organic carbon (SOC). The fungal communities were mainly related to available phosphorus (P). The results suggested that the changes of land use type generated changes in soil chemical properties, controlling the composition of microbial community in the semiarid Loess Plateau region. The microbial community could be an indicator for soil quality with respect to ecological restoration.

Effects of natural vegetative restoration on soil fungal and bacterial communities in bare patches of the southern Taihang Mountains

“…For the bacterial communities, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria were the main bacterial phyla in the bare patches, accounting for approximately 63%–78% of the total community. These findings were similar to those reported previously (Fierer, Bradford, et al, ; Fierer, Breitbart, et al, ; Tian et al, ). Meanwhile, Proteobacteria was the dominant community, possibly because most Proteobacteria communities have both autotrophic and heterotrophic forms, as well as phototrophic and chemotrophic forms.…”

“…The aggregation of soil microorganisms, plant growth, animal activity, and their living habitats forms the entire soil ecosystem (Bell, Newman, Silverman, Turner, & Lilley, ; Brussaard, Ruiter, & Brown, ). Soil microbes, as the main microcomposers of the natural ecosystem, not only participate in nutrient transport, metabolic processes, and biochemical events, but they also indirectly have a substantial direct effect on plant growth and development (e.g., mycorrhizae) (Barberán, Casamayor, & Fierer, ; Green & Bohannan, ; Tian et al, ). The higher the activity of the microbial community, the stronger the material cycling ability of the soil ecosystem (Rousk et al, ; Zuo et al, ).…”

“…Scholars assume that spatial scales, diversity–energy relationships, temporal scales, competitive strategies, and behavior can alter soil microbial communities (Lynch et al, ; Prosser et al, ). Meanwhile, the concept of “environmental selection and adaptation” has received widespread attention in recent years (Fierer, Jackson, Vilgalys, & Jackson, ; Schappe et al, ; Tian et al, ). Researchers argue that the distribution of species is determined by the habitat characteristics, which is closely related to external factors (Filker, Sommaruga, Vila, & Stoeck, ; Lauber, Hamady, Knight, & Fierer, ; Leibold, ).…”

Soil nitrogen cycling is determined by the competition between mycorrhiza and ammonia‐oxidizing prokaryotes

“…Further evidence to support this comes from another finding: by considering per unit N stocks, the differences between the AM and ECM forests, in terms of fungal saprotrophic abundance and prokaryotic N‐degrading gene abundance, ceased to exist. Substrate quality and quantity have been reported to be the primary factors affecting the soil fungal and prokaryotic community structure (Tian et al , Tatsumi et al ). Interestingly, our findings do not provide strong support to back up previous reports, where ECM fungi limited saprotrophic growth (Gadgil and Gadgil , Fernandez and Kennedy ).…”

Soil moisture variations in response to precipitation in different vegetation types: A multi‐year study in the loess hilly region in China

“…Since 2007, observation plots had been established in different vegetation types for multipurpose investigations, for example, investigations on forest evapotranspiration (Du et al, ; Yan et al, ; Zhang et al, ; Zhang, Guan, Shi, Yamanaka, & Du, ), soil respiration (Shi, Yan, Zhang, Guan, & Du, ; Shi, Zhang, Yan, Yamanaka, & Du, ), and soil microbial community (Tian et al, ). To understand the dynamic changes in soil moisture, three representative points located at the upper, middle, and lower positions were chosen as replicates within each vegetation type, and totally twelve 3‐m‐long Tecanat® plastic tubes with internal diameter of 42 mm were permanently placed for repetitive time‐domain reflectometry measurements.…”