Pavement Overrides the Effects of Tree Species on Soil Bacterial Communities

Abstract

Human disturbance and vegetation are known to affect soil microorganisms. However, the interacting effects of pavement and plant species on soil bacterial communities have received far less attention. In this study, we collected soil samples from pine (Pinus tabuliformis Carr.), ash (Fraxinus chinensis), and maple (Acer truncatum Bunge) stands that grew in impervious, pervious, and no pavement blocks to investigate the way pavement, tree species, and their interaction influence soil bacterial communities by modifying soil physicochemical properties. Soil bacterial community composition and diversity were evaluated by bacterial 16S amplicon sequencing. The results demonstrated that soil bacterial community composition and diversity did differ significantly across pavements, but not with tree species. The difference in soil bacterial community composition across pavements was greater in pine stands than ash and maple stands. Soil bacterial diversity and richness indices decreased beneath impervious pavement in pine stands, and only bacterial richness indices decreased markedly in ash stands, but neither showed a significant difference across pavements in maple stands. In addition, bacterial diversity did not differ dramatically between pervious pavement and no pavement soil. Taken together, these results suggest that pavement overwhelmed the effects of tree species on soil bacterial communities, and had a greater effect on soil bacterial communities in pine stands, followed by ash and maple stands. This study highlights the importance of anthropogenic disturbance, such as pavement, which affects soil microbial communities.

Impact of Plant–Microbe Interactions with a Focus on Poorly Investigated Urban Ecosystems—A Review

“…For example, the Fagus grandifolia (beech) rhizomicrobiota showed greater sensitivity to urbanization pressure compared to the Liriodendron tulipifera (yellow poplar) microbial community. Similarly, paving seemed to have a greater effect on Pinus tabuliformis (pine) root bacterial communities than on the Fraxinus chinensis (ash) and Acer truncatum (maple) communities [105,106].…”

“…The examination of these works revealed that plants in urban contexts, as in natural environments, exerted an important influence on the rhizosphere microbial communities and affected their structure and composition via the modulation of soil chemistry (Figure 4) [95,[104][105][106][107]. For example, plants played a role in modifying the rhizosphere pH via different root-mediated processes.…”

“…Several microbial taxa adapted to withstand pollutants, desiccation, and other stresses associated with urbanization have been reported (Table 3) [112]. Among these, bacteria belonging to the Firmicutes phylum, which are resistant to extreme environmental changes, showed relatively high percentages in relation to increased anthropic/urban pressures [105,106]. Within Firmicutes, aerobic spore-forming bacteria (such as Bacillus spp.)…”