Soil physicochemical properties drive the variation in soil microbial communities along a forest successional series in a degraded wetland in northeastern China

Abstract

The Sanjiang Plain is the biggest freshwater wetland locating in northeastern China. Due to climate change and human activities, that wetland has degraded to a successional gradient from the original flooded wetland to dry shrub vegetation and a forest area with lower ground water level, which may result in changes in soil microbiologic structure and functions. The present study investigated the microbial diversity and community structure in relation to soil properties along that successional gradient. The soil physico‐chemical properties changed significantly with degradation stage. The Shannon diversity index of both soil bacteria (5.90–6.42) and fungi (1.7–4.19) varied significantly with successional stage (both p < .05). The community structures of soil bacteria and fungi in the early successional stages (i.e., the wetland) were significantly determined by water content, total nitrogen, and available nitrogen concentrations in soils, while those in the later successional stages (i.e., forests) were significantly structured by soil organic carbon, soil pH, and available phosphorus concentrations. These results suggest that the soil microbial structure is mainly determined by soil properties rather than by plant community such as plant species composition along successional stages.

Climax forest has a higher soil bacterial diversity but lower soil nutrient contents than degraded forests in temperate northern China

“…In addition, the differences in the composition of aboveground vegetation in our study led to differences in the growth and metabolism of plant roots and the composition and quality of aboveground litter. In turn, this changed the content and physicochemical properties of organic nutrients in the soil, resulting in variations in the soil microorganisms (Deng, Zhang, et al, 2019; Sui et al, 2021). According to the comprehensive NMDS analysis in our study, coniferous forest (LG) and mixed forest (LGQM) belonged to one category, whereas broadleaved forests (BD and BP) belonged to another (Figure 1).…”

“…According to the comprehensive NMDS analysis in our study, coniferous forest (LG) and mixed forest (LGQM) belonged to one category, whereas broadleaved forests (BD and BP) belonged to another (Figure 1). The α diversity of soil bacteria in the coniferous forest was higher than in the broadleaved forests and broadleaved and coniferous mixed forests, which may be due to the relationship between soil bacterial diversity and forest age and developmental stage (Sui et al, 2021). Larix gmelinii constitutes the original and current dominant community in the study area and its ecological stability is high, whereas other forests were mainly formed after logging activities.…”

Storage, patterns and influencing factors for soil organic carbon in coastal wetlands of China

“…The physicochemical environment also regulates the supply of water, oxygen, nutrients, and other resources, which are necessary for microbial communities to use SOC, as well as for plant C assimilation and deposition as detritus or rhizodeposits (Luo et al, 2021). The stabilization of OC in soil has been shown to vary significantly because of physical stabilization mechanism, chemical stabilization mechanism, and biochemical protection mechanism (Feng et al, 2013; Sui et al, 2021). However, large field data sets showing spatial heterogeneity of edaphic variables in coastal wetlands remain scarce, which perpetuates the extensive uncertainties about the patterns of SOC stocks and the main controlling factors.…”

Soil Microbial Diversity and Community Composition in Rice–Fish Co-Culture and Rice Monoculture Farming System

“…Soil physicochemical properties have a great influence on bacterial community composition [ 7 , 50 , 64 , 65 ]. Our findings indicated that the different soil management practices of RF and MC farming systems cause a significant difference in soil physicochemical properties, resulting in the different composition of soil bacterial communities and their metabolic functions ( Figure 5 and Table 3 ).…”