Short-Term Snow Removal Alters Fungal but Not Bacterial Beta Diversity and Structure during the Spring Snowmelt Period in a Meadow Steppe of China

Abstract

Global climate change is altering the amounts of ice and snow in winter, and this could be a major driver of soil microbial processes. However, it is not known how bacterial and fungal communities will respond to changes in the snow cover. We conducted a snow manipulation experiment to study the effects of snow removal on the diversity and composition of soil bacterial and fungal communities. A snow manipulation experiment was carried out on the meadow steppe in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, China, during the winter period October 2019–March 2020. Soil samples were collected from the topsoil (0–10 cm) in mid-March 2020 (spring snowmelt period). Snow removal significantly reduced soil moisture and soil ammonium concentration. Lower snow cover also significantly changed the fungal community structure and beta diversity. Snow removal did not affect the bacterial community, indicating that fungal communities are more sensitive to snow exclusion than bacterial communities. The relative importance analysis (using the Lindeman–Merenda–Gold method) showed that available nitrogen (AN), soil water content (SWC), total organic carbon (TOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) together explained 94.59% of the variation in soil fungal beta diversity, where AN was identified as the most important predictor. These finding provide insights into potential impacts of climate warming and associated reduced snow cover on soil microbial communities and processes.

Diversity in rhizospheric microbial communities in tea varieties at different locations and tapping potential beneficial microorganisms

“…We speculate that fungal communities are more susceptible to locations than bacterial communities because the structure of fungal communities in different locations showed greater differences than that of bacterial communities (PC1:43.62%,PC2:16.54%) (Figures 4C,D). Moreover, some previous studies have also confirmed that the beta diversity and abundance of fungal communities are more different than those of bacterial communities with the change of environment Xu et al, 2022).…”

Short-Term Vegetation Restoration Enhances the Complexity of Soil Fungal Network and Decreased the Complexity of Bacterial Network

“…The soil pH was measured by a potentiometer after shaking a soil water suspension (1:2.5 water/soil) for 30 min. The soil's available phosphorus (AP) was determined using the Olsen method which involved adding 50 mL of Olsen's reagent to 2.5 g of air-dried soil (soil-solution ratio of 1:20) and subsequently shaking it for 30 min, then the filtrate was used to determine it colorimetrically [20]. The total phosphorus (TP) was measured by the sodium hydroxide melting-molybdenum barium colorimetric method [43].…”

“…The bacterial 16S rRNA gene was amplified with the primers 338F_806R and the fugal ITS region was amplified with the primers ITS1F_ITS2 by an ABI GeneAmp ® 9700 PCR thermocycler (ABI, Los Angeles, CA, USA). To profile the soil bacterial communities, we amplified the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene with the primer sets 338F (5′-ACTCCTAC-GGGAGGCAGCAG-3′) and 806R (5′-GGACTACHVGGGTWTCTAAT-3′) [20,45]. For the fungal communities, we amplified the ITS region with the primers sets ITS1-F (5′-CTT-GGTCATTTAGAGGAAGTAA-3′) and ITS2 (5′-TGCGTTCTTCATCGATGC-3′) [20,46].…”

“…To profile the soil bacterial communities, we amplified the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene with the primer sets 338F (5′-ACTCCTAC-GGGAGGCAGCAG-3′) and 806R (5′-GGACTACHVGGGTWTCTAAT-3′) [20,45]. For the fungal communities, we amplified the ITS region with the primers sets ITS1-F (5′-CTT-GGTCATTTAGAGGAAGTAA-3′) and ITS2 (5′-TGCGTTCTTCATCGATGC-3′) [20,46].…”

“…Soil microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) regulate global biogeochemical cycles and respond rapidly to changes in the soil's microenvironment [20,21]. Microorganisms have an extremely high reproduction rate and richness, which allows the microbial community to have the ability to respond to environmental changes in time [20][21][22][23]. Additionally, the diversity and composition of bacterial and fungal communities plays an irreplaceable role in decomposition and nutrient cycling [24,25].…”