Acid soils are the degraded (nutrient-poor)
soils that generally
lack microbial abundance required to promote plant growth. An insight
into the microbial diversity in highly acidic soils is crucial from
both ecological and environmental standpoints. Previously, we showed
that inoculation of acid soils with acid-tolerant microalgae (algalization)
significantly improved soil physicochemical and biological characteristics.
In the present novel study involving a laboratory microcosm, high-throughput
16S rRNA amplicon sequencing analysis was performed to investigate
the bacterial diversity in acid soils algalized with Desmodesmus sp. MAS1 and Heterochlorella sp. MAS3 after 90
days of incubation. Our results on pooled DNA demonstrate that algalization
of two acid soils (soil A and B) significantly increased several bacterial
genera, and this observation is consistent with Shannon and Chao1
diversity indices. Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria were the most prevalent phyla enriched in all of the algalized treatments.
Interestingly, nonalgalized acid soils favored only Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, but algalization significantly
enriched Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria. Canonical correspondence analysis
revealed a positive effect of pH in soil A and both pH and organic
carbon in soil B on enrichment. Furthermore, soil bacteria of ecological
significance that belong to rhizobacteria and diazotrophs, such as Acetobacter, Azospirillum, Bradyrhizobium, Gluconacetobacter, Nitrobacter, Burkholderia, Comamonas, Herbaspirillum, Enterobacter, Nitrosococcus, Brevibacillus, Enterococcus, Frankia, and Anabaena, were greatly enriched
in algalized treatments. Thus, we demonstrate here for the first time
that algalization of acid soils significantly improves soil health
through enrichment of bacteria that are largely implicated in promoting
soil health and plant growth.