Soil moisture affects soil microbial community diversity, structure and phenotypic characteristics on the south shore of Hulun Lake in Inner Mongolia of China

Abstract

Soil moisture is one important factor affecting ecosystem function, controlling the diffusion and transport of soil nutrients, maintaining soil microbial activities, and altering soil microbial diversity. To explore the response of soil microbial to soil moisture in the grassland ecosystem along the south shore of Hulun Lake in Inner Mongolia, China, we established a study area covering a natural soil moisture gradient which was subdivided into high (HW), medium (MW) and low water content (LW). Aboveground and belowground properties were measured by field investigation and laboratory analyses, respectively. Soil prokaryotic community composition was determined by high-throughput sequencing techniques. Soil moisture content as a dominant controlling factor, and soil organic nutrients as a secondary controlling factor, significantly affected the diversity of prokaryotic communities. The relative abundance and diversity of prokaryotic microbial were highest under MW, indicating a high heterogeneity of prokaryotes. However, the number of differential ASVs decreased, indicating that the structure and composition of the community stabilized under MW. Therefore, the prokaryotic community was more suitable to survive under MW. Although the relative abundance and diversity of microorganisms were lower under HW and LW than MW, phenotypic predictions showed that the prokaryotic community was more tolerant. We believe that either too high or too low soil water content will reduce the relative abundance and diversity of prokaryotic communities, and the communities will gradually become resistant to stress. Soil microbial community characteristics of the south shore of Hulun Lake in Inner Mongolia, China, respond significantly to soil moisture.

Categories and Application Fields and Manufacturing Process and Action Mechanism of Water Retaining Agent

“…The operation is simple, the purity of the product is high, and the reaction can be carried out even at low temperature, no environmental pollution A large amount of equipment investment is required in the early stage 5 Advances in Polymer Technology harsh environment, and improve the tolerance of plants to drought, saline alkali, and flooding [46]. When the soil is dry, the microorganism activity is affected; at this time, the water content in the soil is so low that the diffusion of the substrate is limited; then, the growth process of the microorganism is hindered because of the lack of nutrients [47], which affects the growth of plants. Gao et al found that the duration of water stress had a great impact on the structural diversity and richness of microbial community in the rhizosphere of greenhouse grapes.…”