Soil microbiomes with distinct assemblies through vertical soil profiles drive the cycling of multiple nutrients in reforested ecosystems

Abstract

BackgroundSoil microbiomes play an important role in the services and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. However, little is known of their vertical responses to restoration process and their contributions to soil nutrient cycling in the subsurface profiles. Here, we investigated the community assembly of soil bacteria, archaea, and fungi along vertical (i.e., soil depths of 0–300 cm) and horizontal (i.e., distance from trees of 30–90 cm) profiles in a chronosequence of reforestation sites that represent over 30 years of restoration.ResultsIn the superficial layers (0–80 cm), bacterial and fungal diversity decreased, whereas archaeal diversity increased with increasing soil depth. As reforestation proceeded over time, the vertical spatial variation in bacterial communities decreased, while that in archaeal and fungal communities increased. Vertical distributions of the soil microbiomes were more related to the variation in soil properties, while their horizontal distributions may be driven by a gradient effect of roots extending from the tree. Bacterial and archaeal beta-diversity were strongly related to multi-nutrient cycling in the soil, respectively, playing major roles in deep and superficial layers.ConclusionsTaken together, these results reveal a new perspective on the vertical and horizontal spatial variation in soil microbiomes at the fine scale of single trees. Distinct response patterns underpinned the contributions of soil bacteria, archaea, and fungi as a function of subsurface nutrient cycling during the reforestation of ex-arable land.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40168-018-0526-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Passive and active ecological restoration strategies for abandoned farmland leads to shifts in potential soil nitrogen loss by denitrification and soil denitrifying microbes

“…The impacts of natural and artificial revegetation of abandoned farmland on the ecological environment have been intensively examined, contributing to adjustments in land‐use policy and combinatorial optimization in ecological restoration strategies worldwide (Barber, Chantos‐Davidson, Amel Peralta, Sherwood, & Swingley, ; Jiao et al, ; Lozano, Hortal, Armas, & Pugnaire, ; Nadal‐Romero, Cammeraat, Pérez‐Cardiel, & Lasanta, ). Abandoned farmland can sustain secondary succession (passive restoration) or afforestation (active restoration), leading to a mosaic of reconstructed vegetation and artificial forests (Nadal‐Romero et al, ).…”

Soil microbial diversity drops with land‐use change in a high mountain temperate forest: a metagenomics survey

“…These studies found that arable soils were similar or more diverse than the original ecosystem and that functional redundancy overcomes the ecosystem transformation. Most studies, however, have determined Shannon and Simpson indices and they did not report on the magnitude of the changes (Mendes et al, 2015;Castañeda and Barbosa, 2017;Goss-Souza et al, 2017;Jiao et al, 2018). However, the effect on soil biodiversity of conversion of high-altitude temperate forest to arable land has not yet been investigated and as the vegetation and environmental conditions are different, it is difficult to predict what the effect might be.…”

“…The percentages of overlap and turnover of species or functions were determined through the multiplicative partition of beta-diversity. The alpha diversity profile at q = 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 of soil communities, and the overlap and turnover rate at q = 0, 1 and 2 between communities were obtained with Meta-genomeDiversity script in R (Ma and Li, 2018). The percentages of diversity shared between soils were calculated as described by Moreno et al (2011).…”

“…Martínez‐Núñez and Pérez‐Rueda () suggested that archaea contain more promiscuous enzymes providing an enzymatic repertoire that allow them to face multiple ecological variables in fluctuating environments. Archaea communities in arable soils reforested for > 20 y in the Tibetan Plateau were equally diverse and showed high similarity between soils (Jiao et al ., ). Archaeal communities were evener than bacterial ones, which might explain why the effect of land‐use change on bacteria diversity was different than that on archaea.…”

Role and exploitation of underground chemical signaling in plants

“…2 The soil ecosystem is particularly important for agriculture since it contributes to the decomposition of organic matter and litter, which plays a major role in resource recycling, 10 nutrient retention and uptake by the plant, water regulation and biogeochemical cycling. 11,12 All these processes together potentially enrich the soil with mineral nutrients and redistribute the organic matter that comes from plant residues, 13 increasing soil health and www.soci.org A Guerrieri, L Dong, HJ Bouwmeester fertility and thus improving crop yield. In addition, soil organisms influence many aspects of the plant, from belowground to aboveground.…”