Effects of Plantation Type and Soil Depth on Microbial Community Structure and Nutrient Cycling Function

Abstract

Declining soil quality and microecological imbalances were evaluated in larch plantations in this study. One potential solution to this problem is the cultivation of mixed coniferous and broad-leaved plantations. However, it is unclear whether and how soil microbial community structure and nutrient cycling function would be affected by mixed plantations and soil depths. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing technology to investigate bacterial 16S and fungal ITS regions for comparisons of soil microbial diversity among plantation types (a Larix gmelinii pure plantation, a Fraxinus mandshurica pure plantation, a Larix–Fraxinus mixed plantation within the Larix row, the Fraxinus row, and between the Larix and Fraxinus rows) and soil depths (0–10, 10–20, and 20–40 cm). These data were used to evaluate variations in microbial communities and nutrient cycling function with the determining environmental factors. Our results indicated that bacteria had a stronger spatial dependence than did fungi, while plantation types significantly affected the fungal community. The relative abundance of Gaiellaceae, as well as bacterial ligninolysis, nitrate ammonification, and nitrite ammonification functions significantly increased with increasing soil depth. Compared with other plantations, the relative abundance of Inocybaceae was significantly higher in the Larix plantation. Distance-based redundancy analysis (db-RDA) showed that Gaiellaceae and Inocybaceae abundances were positively correlated with ammonium nitrogen content, available phosphorus content, and phosphatase activity. Our findings indicate that variations in soil available phosphorus are closely related to the relative abundances of Gaiellaceae at different soil depths and Inocybaceae in different plantation types. Mixed plantations might change the availability of soil phosphorus by controlling the relative abundance of Inocybaceae. We recommend that fungal community changes be considered in the sustainable management of mixed plantations.

Struvites with Comparable Nitrogen and Phosphorus Composition Have Similar Agronomic Response But Shape Cherry Tomato Rhizosphere Bacterial Community Structure Differently

“…The significant positive correlation with available P and Gaiellaceae abundance found in this study has been reported by other researchers in different soils and is attributed to genera in this family having the ability to produce alkaline and acid phosphatase (Wang et al, 2022b). Solibacteraceae are known to proliferate in low P conditions (Lang et al, 2021;Oliverio et al, 2020) and the negative correlation between available P and Solibacteraceae found in this study supports this.…”

Convergent and divergent responses of the rhizosphere chemistry and bacterial communities to a stress gradient in the Atacama Desert

“…Hyphomicrobiaceae, Bradyrhizobiaceae and Acetobacteraceae, which are known to cope with nitrogen starvation, were observed in both vegetation zones as well as Gaiellaceae and Sphingomonadaceae, bacteria associated with phosphorous limitations or metal pollution, respectively. (72,73). Thus, although a certain level of divergence was noticed in the chemical rhizosphere markers between plant species, similar ecological consequences on the soil microbiome were found.…”

Microbial Community, Co-Occurrence Network Relationship and Fermentation Lignocellulose Characteristics of Broussonetia papyrifera Ensiled with Wheat Bran

“…The Spearman’s correlation heatmaps between bacterial and fungal groups were constructed via R software (Version 3.3.1) pheatmap package [ 27 ]. The Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to analyze the difference of functional bacterial community categories among different samples [ 28 ]. Distance-based redundancy analysis (db-RDA) was performed using the vegan package in R software to investigate the relationships among microbial composition, enzyme activity, and silage chemical components content [ 29 ].…”