The Effect of Soil Texture on Richness and Diversity of Bacterial Communities

Abstract

Bacterial diversity in soil is high relative to more homogeneous environments (e.g., freshwater or marine habitats). Isolation imparted by fragmented aquatic microhabitats in unsaturated soil likely plays a large role in creating this diversity. We evaluate the role of soil texture, which determines the extent and connectivity of microhabitats, in constraining bacterial diversity. Soil samples with a range of textures were collected from sixteen sites across Connecticut and Massachusetts. Soil particle size distributions were measured to determine soil texture (% sand, % silt and % clay). Soil chemical characteristics (e.g., pH, % , %N) that might influence diversity were quantified for each site. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis was performed to characterize the diversity (richness, Shannon's H , and evenness) of soil bacterial communities. Bacterial species richness increased significantly (p = 0.04) with the coarseness of the soil, quantified as % sand. No trend in H or E were observed; all communities exhibited high diversity and evenness. The increase in species richness in coarser soils is likely due to the increased number of isolated water films in soils with larger pores, suggesting that pore-scale hydrologic regime constrains bacterial richness in soil.

Microbial community changes induced by Managed Aquifer Recharge activities: Linking hydrogeological and biological processes

“…This heterogeneous effect with distance to the entry point of the basin is also observed in the diversity indices, which lose diversity with distance and are inversely correlated to the proportion of fine particles. Similar behavior for richness correlated to soil texture was reported elsewhere (Chau et al, 2011).…”

Microbes: The chief ecological engineers in reinstating equilibrium in degraded ecosystems

“…Changes in land-use patterns considerably impact the diversity of different microbial community compositions in soils (Chau et al, 2011). It may be argued that the greater diversity of microbes in ecosystems could establish a functional equilibrium, which may facilitate to maintain sustainability (Seneviratne, 2012).…”

The Effect of Soil Texture on Fruits and Growth Properties in Rabbiteye Blueberries

“…반면 점토와 미사의 함량증가는 상대적으로 배수가 불량해 지는 단점을 가지고 있다 (Billings, 1987;Davidson and Lefebvre, 1993;Sands and Bowen, 1978;Sands et al, 1979;Theodorou et al, 1991;Yapa et al, 1988). 토성의 종류 즉 입자의 구성비율은 유기물의 무기화 (Hassink et al, 1993), 입단구조 (Mamedov et al, 2007;Tisdall and Oades, 1982), 미생물 군집구조의 다양성 (Bach et al, 2010;Chau et al, 2011) 등 토양 물리적, 생물학적 안정성 에 큰 영향을 준다 (Juma, 1993 Table 2. Effect of soil texture on the content of nutrients in leaves of rabbiteye blueberry cultivars.…”