The status of soil organic matter decomposing microbiota in afforested and abandoned arable Arenosols

Abstract

Please use the following format when citing the article: Aleinikovienė J., Armolaitis K., Česnulevičienė R., Žėkaitė V., Muraškienė M. 2017. The status of soil organic matter decomposing microbiota in afforested and abandoned arable Arenosols. Zemdirbyste-Agriculture, 104 (3): 99-106 DOI 10.13080/z-a.2017.104.025 ISSN 1392-3196 / e-ISSN 2335-8947 Zemdirbyste-Agriculture, vol. 104, No. 3 (2017), p. 195-202 DOI 10.13080/z-a.2017 The status of soil organic matter decomposing microbiota in afforested and abandoned arable Arenosols AbstractOrganic matter decomposing soil microbiota status (abundance and diversity) have been investigated in former arable Arenosols (AR) that (i) were afforested 45 years ago with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) plantations or (ii) abandoned for the last 12 years (since 1993). The abundance of soil microbiota in soil organic layer (forest floor or dead grass fall) and in surface 0-2 and 2-10 cm mineral layers of former ploughed Ap horizon was estimated by the standard method of sowing organic or mineral soil suspensions on the agarised nutrient standard media and on media supplemented by mineral substances and different lignin monomers. The diversity of soil microbiota was determined only in surface mineral layers and was expressed according to the occurrence of the cytochrome P450 gene in mineral soil. The highest abundance of soil microbiota was found in organic layers of former arable Arenosols, especially, in forest floor of pine plantations, where mean abundance of microbiota was from 4-10 to even 20-30-fold higher than in surface mineral layers of former arable horizon. However, in the studied surface mineral soil layers mean microbial abundance, including lignin decomposing microbiota, was on average by 2-5 times higher in abandoned land than in pine plantations. In addition, it was determined that the microbiota diversity was two times higher in abandoned Arenosols where more actinobacteria and proteobacteria strains were, while in 45-year-old pine plantations organic matter decomposers were mainly proteobacteria strain related. It was concluded that the accumulation and the decomposition of forest floor, and lower abundance and diversity of microbiota in surface mineral layer preserve or even could promote higher sequestration rate of soil organic carbon in afforested than in abandoned arable Arenosols.

Effects of Litter and Root Manipulations on Soil Bacterial and Fungal Community Structure and Function in a Schrenk’s Spruce (Picea schrenkiana) Forest

“…Our results showed that the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Planctomycetes in the NL and NR treatments was lower than that in the CK ( Figure 2A ). Previous study has shown that Proteobacteria are the major functional bacteria for the decomposition and transformation of organic matter ( Aleinikoviene et al, 2017 ). NL and NR decreased the quantity of organic matter input into the soil and the availability of soil nutrients ( Supplementary Table S2 ), thus leading to a decrease in the relative abundance of Proteobacteria ( Liu et al, 2019 ).…”