Dominance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea community induced by land use change from Masson pine to eucalypt plantation in subtropical China

Abstract

A considerable proportion of Masson pine forests have been converted into eucalypt plantations in the last 30 years in Guangdong Province, subtropical China, for economic reasons, which may affect the ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) community and the process of ammonia transformation. In order to determine the effects of forest conversion on AOA community, AOA communities in a Masson pine (Pinus massoniana) plantation and a eucalypt (Eucalyptus urophylla) plantation, which was converted from the Masson pine, were compared. Results showed that the land use change from the Masson pine to the eucalypt plantation decreased soil nutrient levels. A significant decrease of the potential nitrification rates (PNR) was also observed after the forest conversion (p < 5 %, n = 6). AOA were the only ammonia oxidizers in both plantations (no ammonia-oxidizing bacteria were detected). The detected AOA are affiliated with the genera Nitrosotalea and Nitrososphaera. A decrease of AOA abundance and an increase of the diversity were evident with the plantation conversion in the surface layer. AOA amoA gene diversity was negatively correlated with organic C and total N, respectively (p < 0.05, n = 12). AOA amoA gene abundance was negatively correlated with NH4 (+) and available P, respectively (p < 0.05, n = 12). However, AOA abundance was positively correlated with PNR, but not significantly (p < 0.05, n = 6), indicating AOA community change was only a partial reason for the decrease of PNR.

Ammonia- and Methane-Oxidizing Bacteria: The Abundance, Niches and Compositional Differences for Diverse Soil Layers in Three Flooded Paddy Fields

“…Although some studies have suggested that the oxidation of NH 3 is mainly attributed to AOA [31,32], the presence of both AOA and AOB in all the three FPFs in the present study indicated that the two groups could jointly play a role in the transformation of NH 3 to NO 3 -. Consistent with the findings of previous studies across different ecosystems [16,33], we observed that AOA abundance has a more considerable role than AOB and MOB across the three FPFs, with the highest amoA observed in the bottom soil layers, particularly in the SPB and JD sites. Although the results of previous studies have suggested that AOA numerically outnumber AOB in acidic soil, in the present study we observed that despite the soil pH values across the FPFs moving away from being acidic to alkaline (Table 1), the AOA abundance was still significantly higher than AOB abundance in all FPFs, and were consistent with the higher potential nitrification rates (PNRs), particularly in the SPB and JD sites.…”

Quantificação dos efeitos da introdução de Pinus taeda nas comunidades microbianas do solo e no ciclo do nitrogênio em uma floresta tropical montana nativa com Araucaria angustifolia

“…Against our prediction, the abundances of AOA and AOB amoA genes were not significantly related with soil extractable NH4 + in the present study. A significant relationship has previously been reported between amoA and NH4 + after the conversion of P. massoniana forest into Eucalyptus plantation in subtropical China (Zhang et al 2016). In contrast to our study, where the presence of both AOA and AOB amoA genes were detected in both vegetation types studied and were generally more abundant in the topsoil, the study by Zhang et al (2016) did not detect the presence of AOB amoA gene.…”

“…A significant relationship has previously been reported between amoA and NH4 + after the conversion of P. massoniana forest into Eucalyptus plantation in subtropical China (Zhang et al 2016). In contrast to our study, where the presence of both AOA and AOB amoA genes were detected in both vegetation types studied and were generally more abundant in the topsoil, the study by Zhang et al (2016) did not detect the presence of AOB amoA gene. A study conducted in P. taeda forest in Texas, USA, has shown that AOA and AOB were influenced by soil depth and that significant reductions of NH4 + , NO2and NO3were associated to increasing soil depth (Mushinski et al 2017).…”

Reforestation of Cunninghamia lanceolata changes the relative abundances of important prokaryotic families in soil

“…The finding that forest conversion affects microbial communities composition is similar to the results of several previous studies, for example, in areas where native broadleaf forests were converted to plantation forests in Fujian Province, China (Guo et al, 2016a ), the relative abundance of Gram-positive bacteria in the soil of the Chinese fir plantation forest was significantly lower than that in the soil of the native broad-leaved forest; in Zhejiang Province, China where broadleaf forests were converted to bamboo forests, anaerobic bacterial abundance increased significantly (Guo et al, 2016b ); in Hunan Province, China after converting from a natural evergreen and deciduous broad-leaf forest to four different 5-year old monoculture plantations, the relative abundance of Ca . solidcharacter, Acidibacter, Occallatibacter, Burkholderia , and Acidothermus decreased, while the relative abundances of the genera HSB_OF53-F07 (Order: Ktedonobacterales) and FCPS473 (Family: Ktedonobacteraceae) increased (Liu et al, 2020 ); in Guangdong Province, China, the transition from the Masson pine to eucalyptus plantation forests resulted in a significant decrease in soil AOA abundance (Zhang et al, 2016 ); and in Sumatra, Indonesia, tropical rainforests have been transformed into rubber agroforestry composite forests, leading to a decrease in the abundance of Gram-negative bacteria (Krashevska et al, 2015 ).…”