Soil microbial community composition rather than litter quality is linked with soil organic carbon chemical composition in plantations in subtropical China

Liu

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

Self Cite

A strategic selection of tree species will shift the type and quality of litter input, and subsequently magnitude and composition of the soil organic carbon (SOC) through soil microbial community. We conducted a manipulative experiment in randomized block design with leaf litter inputs of four native subtropical tree species in a Pinus massoniana plantation in southern China and found that the chemical composition of SOC did not differ significantly among treatments until after 28 months of the experiment. Contrasting leaf litter inputs had significant impacts on the amounts of total microbial, Gram-positive bacterial, and actinomycic PLFAs, but not on the amounts of total bacterial, Gram-negative bacterial, and fungal PLFAs. There were significant differences in alkyl/O-alkyl C in soils among the leaf litter input treatments, but no apparent differences in the proportions of chemical compositions (alkyl, O-alkyl, aromatic, and carbonyl C) in SOC. Soil alkyl/O-alkyl C was significantly related to the amounts of total microbial, and Gram-positive bacterial PLFAs, but not to the chemical compositions of leaf litter. Our findings suggest that changes in forest leaf litter inputs could result in changes in chemical stability of SOC through the altered microbial community composition.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

“…The different results could be attributed to the different climate because fast leaf litter decomposition and fine roots turnover in tropical and subtropical forests. Our previous research has also showed no significant linkage between the chemical compositions of SOC and plant litter C in four subtropical plantations37.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Differential effects of conifer and broadleaf litter inputs on soil organic carbon chemical composition through altered soil microbial community composition

Liu

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

Self Cite

“…The significant associations between the contents of alkyne C, phenolic C, pethoxyl C, COO/NC=O, and alkyl C with soil microbial composition partially supports our first hypothesis. The quantity and the chemical structure of soil organic C is closely related to the activity [97] and composition of microbial populations [98,99]. This research is a step further from previous studies that only reported relationships between fungal community composition and recalcitrant SOM (Soil Organic Matter) [28].…”

Section: Response Of Soil C Fractions To Soil Microbial Composition Umentioning

confidence: 57%

Soil Organic Carbon Chemical Functional Groups under Different Revegetation Types Are Coupled with Changes in the Microbial Community Composition and the Functional Genes

Deng

Zhu

Zhou

et al. 2019

Forests

Different revegetatiom types can affect the chemical composition of soil organic carbon (SOC), soil microbial community and the functional genes related to carbon cycle. However, the relationships between SOC chemical functional groups and soil microbial communities and the functional genes remains poorly unclear under different revegetation types. Using the solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we examined changes in the SOC chemical composition of five soils (0–10 cm depth) from Larix gmelinii Rupr. (LG), Pinus koraiensis Sieb. (PK), Quercus mongolica Fisch. (QM), Juglans mandshurica Maxim. (JM), and conifer-broadleaf forest (CB). And the soil microbial community genes related to metabolism of macro-molecular compounds were determined via whole genome shotgun based on Illumina HiSeq. Our results indicated that broadleaf forests (JM, QM) had increased the contents of soil total carbon (C), total nitrogen (N), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC), compared with coniferous forests (LG, PK) and the conifer-broadleaf forest (CB). While, the coniferous forests generated a lower O-alcoxyl C, a higher alkyl C, and the ratio of alkyl C/O-alkyl C than broadleaf forests. A total of four kingdoms were identified via whole metagenome shotgun sequencing, including eight archaea, 55 bacteria, 15 eukaryota, and two viruses, giving a total 80 phyla. The contents of alkyne C, phenolic C, methoxyl C, COO/NC=O, and alkyl C were strong related to the composition of soil microbial community and their contents illuminated a major part of the variation in soil microbial composition. We detected seven corresponding macro-molecular compounds of different organic carbon functional group, and 244 genes related to metabolism across all samples, and soil total C, total N, and DOC could be the main factors for microbial functional gene composition. Interestingly, the relative abundances of different SOC chemical functional groups, the phylogenetic distance for microbes, the genes of C cycling based on the KEGG database, and the relative abundance of genes related to metabolism of macro-molecular compounds of different SOC chemical functional groups under different revegetation types all could be divided into three groups, including PK plus LG, JM plus QM, and CB. Our results also illustrated that variations in SOC chemical functional groups were strongly associated with changes of soil microbial community taxa and functional genes, which might be affected by the changes of soil characteristics.

Annals of Forest Science

“…In Northeast China, clear-cutting was a common forest management practice for many decades until the turn of the century (Yu et al 2011). Clear-cutting of primary forests often leads to changes in vegetation types and structure, which together with the subsequent variety of litter inputs and forest microclimates (Staddon et al 1997) may lead to irreversible impacts on forest soil quality (Guo et al 2010;Yan et al 2013;Wang et al 2015). Clear-cutting induced soil degeneration can be reflected in acceleration of soil organic matter mineralization, modifications in the amount and quality of organic residues and their redistribution, changes in soil structure, and increases in erosive processes Fang et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of forest type on soil microbial activity in Changbai Mountain, Northeast China

Fang

Zhou

et al. 2016