Response of Soil Microbial Communities and Functions to Long-Term Tea (Camellia sinensis L.) Planting in a Subtropical Region

Abstract

Soil microbes are the key to revealing the mechanisms driving variation in soil biogeochemical processes. In recent decades, forests in Southeast China have been widely transformed into tea plantations due to the drivers of economic benefits. However, the changes in the soil microbial community and their potential function during the transition from a typical forest ecosystem to tea plantations remain poorly understood. This study investigated the soil microbial community in tea plantation soils with different planting ages, i.e., 6, 12, 23 and 35 years, and in an adjacent woodland control. We discovered that tea planting significantly increased soil bacterial richness (ACE and Chao1) and decreased fungal richness, the diversity of bacteria (Simpson and Shannon) show a trend of initially decreasing and then increasing while there was no significant effect on fungal diversity. After tea planting, the relative abundances of Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria increased by 180.9%–386.6% and 62.3%–97.5%, respectively; the relative abundances of Acidobacteria decreased by 11.4%–66.8%. However, the fungal phyla were not significantly different among different aged tea plantations and woodlands. FAPROTAX and FUNGuild revealed that the transition of natural woodland to tea plantations significantly increased the relative abundances of aerobic_chemoheterotrophy (14.66%–22.69%), chemoheterotrophy (34.36%–37.04%), ureolysis (0.68%–1.35%) and pathogenic fungi (26.17%–37.02%). db-RDA proved that the bacterial community structure was more strongly related to soil pH and available nitrogen (AN), while the main determinants of the fungal community composition were soil pH and soil organic matter (SOM). These findings indicate that tea planting has a strong effect on the soil microbial community and potential function. The change in soil pH during tea planting was the most important factor affecting the soil microbial community, while soil bacteria were more sensitive to tea planting than fungi.

Understanding and exploring the diversity of soil microorganisms in tea (Camellia sinensis) gardens: toward sustainable tea production

“…Besides, the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers to increase yield in tea gardens could be responsible for the abundance of Proteobacteria in soil because they are actively involved in nitrogen conversions in soil. Likewise, a recent study conducted by Zheng et al (2023) through the direct extraction of soil DNA and high-throughput sequencing to investigate soil microbial communities structure in tea plantations in the Southeast region of China, reported the relative abundance of bacterial phyla corresponding to Proteobacteria (20.96-41.40%), Acidobacteria (9.41-28.42%), Firmicutes (6.39-16.03%), Bacteriodetes (6.05-13.80%), Chloroflexi (3.35-13.27%) and Actinobacteria (2.37-11.52%) being dominant phyla. Lynn et al (2017), through the direct extraction of soil microbial DNA and 16S rRNA sequencing also demonstrated that Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes dominated the diverse bacterial communities in tea plantations found in Southern region of China.…”

“…Thus, these abilities may be linked to their ubiquity and potentials to protect plants against pathogens. Zheng et al (2023) investigated the response of soil microbial communities and functions to long-term tea (C. sinensis) planting in a subtropical region and reported the relative abundance of fungal community in tea gardens to be largely dominated by .13%), Mortierellomycota (1.8-10.1%), and Rozellomycota (0.12-7.41%). Similarly, Ma et al (2022) in a study conducted on soils of tea plantations revealed that fungal community predominantly consisted Earlier reports indicated that fungal communities in several tea gardens at the genus level are dominated primarily by Saitozyma (Ma et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2023).…”

“…Tea roots colonization by AMF can also help tea plants to survive under adverse conditions, enhance photosynthesis, and increase nutrient (e.g., phosphorus) absorption (Bag et al, 2021;Almario et al, 2022). Conversely, some soil microorganisms, e.g., Fusarium and Pseudopestalotiopsis, can cause disease to tea plants (Arafat et al, 2020;Pandey et al, 2023), and cultivation methods such as long-term applications of chemical fertilizers (e.g., Urea-N and NPK) may result in enrichment of pathogenic fungi (e.g., Fusarium and Pseudopestalotiopsis) in tea gardens (Wang et al, 2023;Zheng et al, 2023).…”

“…Soil physicochemical properties like temperature, humidity and pH values influence microbial community diversity in tea garden soils (Muneer et al, 2022). Bacterial and fungal communities during tea planting are strongly affected by changes in soil pH (Zheng et al, 2023) that can occur due to the long-term use of chemical fertilizers. Soil pH in tea gardens can be altered by agricultural practices such as the addition of fertilizers and pesticides.…”

Rhizocompartmental microbiomes of arrow bamboo (Fargesia nitida) and their relation to soil properties in Subalpine Coniferous Forests

“…S4 ), soil pH, TN, and invertase were the main contributors to the microbial taxa and functions. Soil pH can affect soil nutrient solubility and availability to plants and the soil microbial community ( Naz et al, 2022 ; Zheng et al, 2023 ). As an essential nutrient, soil nitrogen is generally the limiting factor for plants in terrestrial ecosystems, resulting in strong competition between microorganisms and plants ( Geisseler et al, 2010 ).…”