Litter quality drives the differentiation of microbial communities in the litter horizon across an alpine treeline ecotone in the eastern Tibetan Plateau

Zheng, Haifeng; Chen, Yamei; Liu, Yang; Zhang, Jian; Yang, Weiru; Lin, Yang; Li, Hongjie; Wang, Lifeng; Wu, Fuzhong

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-28150-1

Cited by 24 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Hence, the observed variation in microbial communities was related to the specific microbial species composition and the decomposition stage of needles [65]. Our findings supported the results of Šnajdr et al [66], who reported that fungal biomass was largest in the L layer among the different organic layers, and partly supported the findings of Zheng et al [67], who reported that the abundance of GP, GN, B, FU, and microbial biomass of the organic layer were significantly higher than those of the mineral layer in a coniferous forest. These results imply that different litter layers should be investigated separately when assessing changes to forest soil microbial communities.…”

Section: The Effects Of Organic Layer Changes On Microbial Community supporting

confidence: 92%

Effects of Thinning on Microbial Community Structure in the Organic Horizon of Chinese Pine Plantations in Badaling, Beijing, China

GuangLiang¹,

Sun

Yang

et al. 2019

Forests

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Research Highlights: Moderate thinning can effectively improve forestry production and change the microenvironment of understory vegetation. Background and Objectives: Microbial communities control the decomposition and transformation of forest organic matter; however, the influence of thinning on microbes in the organic horizon remains unclear. Materials and Methods: In this study, we subjected four plots of Chinese pine plantations in Badaling, Beijing to different thinning intensities, including no thinning (T0), low-intensity thinning (T10), medium-intensity thinning (T20), and high-intensity thinning (T50). The changes in chemical properties and microbial community compositions observed in the organic horizon, which comprised undecomposed litter (L layer) and half-decomposed litter (F layer), were analyzed after thinning. Microbial community compositions were evaluated using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) methods. Results: The results showed that the abundances of gram-negative bacteria (GN) and total bacteria (B) under the T10 thinning condition were the highest among the four thinning intensities, and the abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in T20 was higher than under other thinning intensities. The abundance of gram-positive bacteria (GP) and actinobacteria (ACT) in T10 was lower than in both T0 and T50. The abundance of total PLFAs and fungi (FU) was higher in the L layer, whereas the abundance of GP, GN, B, ACT, and AMF was higher in the F layer. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that the L layer better reflects the influence of thinning on litter. Redundancy analysis (RDA) results indicated that the organic carbon (LOC) , dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N)contents of litter were primarily responsible for the observed changes in microbial community structure, with LOC alone explaining 62.6% of the total variance among the litter substrate factors selected. Overall, moderate-intensity thinning of Pinus tabulaeformis Carr. plantations created more favorable conditions for microbial communities in the organic horizon.

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Section: The Effects Of Organic Layer Changes On Microbial Community supporting

confidence: 92%

Effects of Thinning on Microbial Community Structure in the Organic Horizon of Chinese Pine Plantations in Badaling, Beijing, China

GuangLiang¹,

Sun

Yang

et al. 2019

Forests

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“…The negative correlation between N:P RE and soil C:P means that the plants resorbed proportionally more P than N when the soil C:P was higher. A possible explanation consists of higher fraction of microbial P immobilization under high soil C:P (Zheng et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential effects of soil chemistry on the foliar resorption of nitrogen and phosphorus across altitudinal gradients

2019

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Nutrient resorption from senescing leaves prior to litterfall is a strategy for nutrient conservation in vascular plants. However, the mechanisms through which soil fertility and/or foliar nutrient status affect nutrient resorption are not yet fully known. We used two 1,000‐m‐wide altitudinal gradients on two different bedrock types (carbonate and silicate) for analysing the interactive effects of temperature and soil chemistry on the resorption efficiency of two major nutrients, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Our objective was to assess how nutrient resorption varied across the gradients through the adaptation of individual species to changing environmental conditions rather than through changes in species composition. Both N and P resorption efficiency increased across the altitudinal gradients independent of bedrock type. The main process regulating nutrient resorption was a negative feedback to nutrient availability in the soil. The negative feedback of nutrient resorption efficiency to soil nutrient status was unrelated to total soil nutrient contents but depended on concentrations of organic N forms for nitrogen resorption efficiency (NRE) and on inorganic P forms for phosphorus resorption efficiency (PRE), respectively. While we hypothesized that the resorption of P, as a principally rock‐derived nutrient, depended on physical–chemical processes affected by soil chemistry, our results showed that microbial P mineralization was the main source of inorganic P supply to the plants. Both NRE and PRE were effective to improve the growth potential of plants, but there was no evidence of stoichiometric adaptations of N:P RE‐to‐nutrient ratio in the soil. A plain language summary is available for this article.

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“…In turn, substrate quality and stoichiometry, especially available C, N, and P, affect microbial community structure and function (McDaniel et al 2013). Our previous research found that litter quality drives the differentiation of microbial communities and ligninolytic and cellulolytic enzyme activities in the litter horizon across an alpine treeline ecotone (Zheng et al 2018). In a subalpine fir forest, both microclimate and litter quality affect lignocellulose degradation and lignocellulolytic enzyme activities (Chen et al 2018), and canopy gaps facilitate soil organic carbon (SOC) retention by soil microbial biomass in the organic horizon (Liu et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Litter chemical quality strongly affects forest floor microbial groups and ecoenzymatic stoichiometry in the subalpine forest

Liu

Xian

Chen

et al. 2019

Annals of Forest Science

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& Key message Litter chemical quality regulates the distinct composition of the main microbial groups and ecoenzymatic stoichiometry. Microbes in spruce (Picea asperata Mast.) and fir (Abies faxoniana Rehd.) rather than birch (Betula platyphylla Suk.) and rhododendron (Rhododendron lapponicum (L.) Wahl.) can more easily adjust their physiological metabolism to acclimate to low N resources. & Context Litter decomposition is the main pathway of nutrient cycling that bridges aboveground and underground material circulation and energy flow. Microorganisms are essential for the regulation of organic carbon decomposition and nutrient cycling. & Aims We sought to reveal whether litter chemical quality predominates forest floor microbial structure and function in different species and how their characteristics vary with litter decomposition stages. & Methods We measured litter substrate quality, microbial community structure, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and nitrogen (MBN), extracellular enzyme activities and stoichiometric homeostasis of fresh litter (L), and fermentative (F) and humus (H) layers for these tree species. & Results Overall, the enzyme activities and microbial biomass of birch and rhododendron were greater than those of spruce and fir. The microbial abundances of birch and rhododendron decreased with decomposition. Forest floor microbial nutrient limitation is generally restricted by N in subalpine forests, and ecoenzymatic stoichiometry is affected mainly by dissolved C/N/P stoichiometry. Stronger microbial C:N homeostasis (H′) was observed for spruce (5.56) and fir (4.17) than that for birch (1.82) and rhododendron (1.33). & Conclusion We conclude that litter chemical quality led to the disparity in forest floor microbial groups and ecoenzymatic stoichiometry for different tree species.

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Litter quality drives the differentiation of microbial communities in the litter horizon across an alpine treeline ecotone in the eastern Tibetan Plateau

Cited by 24 publications

References 46 publications

Effects of Thinning on Microbial Community Structure in the Organic Horizon of Chinese Pine Plantations in Badaling, Beijing, China

Effects of Thinning on Microbial Community Structure in the Organic Horizon of Chinese Pine Plantations in Badaling, Beijing, China

Differential effects of soil chemistry on the foliar resorption of nitrogen and phosphorus across altitudinal gradients

Litter chemical quality strongly affects forest floor microbial groups and ecoenzymatic stoichiometry in the subalpine forest

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