Changes in Soil Microbial Community and Carbon Flux Regime across a Subtropical Montane Peatland-to-Forest Successional Series in Taiwan

Abstract

Subtropical montane peatland is among several rare ecosystems that continue to receive insufficient scientific exploration. We analyzed the vegetation types and soil bacterial composition, as well as surface carbon dioxide and methane fluxes along a successional peatland-to-upland-forest series in one such ecosystem in Taiwan. The Yuanyang Lake (YYL) study site is characterized by low temperature, high precipitation, prevailing fog, and acidic soil, which are typical conditions for the surrounding dominant Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana forest. Bacterial communities were dominated by Acidobacteriota and Proteobacteria. Along the bog-to-forest gradient, Proteobacteria decreased and Acidobacteriota increased while CO2 fluxes increased and CH4 fluxes decreased. Principal coordinate analysis allowed separating samples into four clusters, which correspond to samples from the bog, marsh, forest, and forest outside of the watershed. The majority of bacterial genera were found in all plots, suggesting that these communities can easily switch to other types. Variation among samples from the same vegetation type suggests influence of habitat heterogeneity on bacterial community composition. Variations of soil water content and season caused the variations of carbon fluxes. While CO2 flux decreased exponentially with increasing soil water content, the CH4 fluxes exhibited an exponential increase together with soil water content. Because YYL is in a process of gradual terrestrialization, especially under the warming climate, we expect changes in microbial composition and the greenhouse gas budget at the landscape scale within the next decades.

Effect of Parthenium hysterophorus L. Invasion on Soil Microbial Communities in the Yellow River Delta, China

“…We speculated that the root endophytes of P. hysterophorus have a particular specificity. Previous studies showed that Acidobacteriota was well-adapted to low-nutrient environments [ 24 ], representing a highly diverse phylum resident to a wide range of habitats around the globe [ 25 ]. In addition, Acidobacteriota was involved in using nitrite as the N source, responding to the soil, expressing multiple active transporters, degrading gellan gum, and producing exopolysaccharides [ 25 ].…”

Changes in specific microbial groups characterize the impact of land conversion to oil palm plantations on peat

“…The major operational taxonomic units (OTUs) identified in this study are associated with bacterial communities of Acidobacteriota, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and the archaeal communities of Thermoplasmata and Crenarchaeota. The most dominant phyla were Acidobacteriota and Proteobacteria which appear widely in most peatland ecosystems (Williams and Crawford, 1983;Kanokratana et al, 2011;Lin et al, 2012;Tsitko et al, 2014;Tripathi et al, 2016;Urbanová and Bárta, 2016;Espenberg et al, 2018;Too et al, 2018;Dom et al, 2021;Chen et al, 2022). Acidobacteriota has a diverse set of transporters for absorbing various substrates and can adapt to organic-rich oligotrophic conditions with low nutrients and pH (Lin et al, 2011;Trivedi et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2016).…”