Study on the correlation between soil microbial diversity and ambient environmental factors influencing the safflower distribution in Xinjiang

Abstract

The effects of soil microbial properties and physiographical factors on safflower distributions in the main safflower plantations of Xinjiang province in China were studied. This study may help determine the basis of the environmental factors for evaluating the geoherbalism of this medicinal plant. The soil microbial biodiversity in the bulk soil and rhizosphere of safflower at different growth stages and from different sampling plots were characterized by analyzing the environmental DNAs in the samples. With general primers targeting the 16S ribosomal DNA for bacteria and the internal transcribed spacer 1 gene for fungi, the study was performed using marker gene amplification coupled with Illumina HiSeq high‐throughput sequencing technologies. Correlation analysis and a distance‐based redundancy analysis were performed to determine the dominant factors affecting the distribution of the microorganism in safflower soils. A total of 16517 bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained from all the 108 soil samples of nine safflower sampling plots. At the phylum level, 48 phyla have been identified with Actinobacteria (32.9%) and proteobacteria (28.7%) being predominant. For fungi, 8746 OTUs were obtained, which belonged to seven phyla with Ascomycota overwhelmingly superior in relative abundance. A significant positive correlation was found between soil microbe quantity and ASL (above sea level). Safflower was sensitive to changes in elevation, growing more abundantly in the mountainous regions at heights of around 1,200 m above sea level. It is concluded that the dominant factors affecting the distribution of microorganisms in safflower soils were soil moisture, available N, and ASL.

Microbial communities in paddy soil as influenced by nitrogen fertilization and water regimes

“…Compared with the PM cultivation system, they were enriched in TF cultivation system without N fertilization and with N fertilization. This indicated that soil moisture condition was an important factor affecting the relative abundance of Ascomycota (Y. Liu et al., 2020), which was consistent with our findings. The bacteria from Module III are mainly involved in the biogeochemical C and N cycles.…”

Comparison of rhizosphere microbial communities under Masson pine families with different carbon sequestration abilities

“…On the other hand, soil moisture is another important limiting factor in forests and has a strong influence on the soil bacterial community (Zhang, Liu, Xue, & Wang, 2016), especially Proteobacteria (Figure 2, Table 2). Liu et al (2020) found that the relative abundance of Proteobacteria in rhizosphere and nonrhizosphere soil under safflower (Carthamus tinctorius ) was significantly negatively correlated with soil moisture, which was similar to the results of this study. However, other studies have noted that the relative abundance of Proteobacteria in the nonrhizosphere soil of grassland vegetation (including Stipa bungeana and Artemisia vestita ) was positively correlated with soil moisture (Liu, Huang, & Zeng, 2016).…”

Distribution characteristics of soil microbial communities and their responses to environmental factors in the sea buckthorn forest in the water-wind erosion crisscross region

“…These results are consistent with those of previous studies. These microbial communities are widely distributed in Qinling Mountains ( Zhao et al, 2022 ), Xinjiang ( Liu et al, 2020 ), the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau ( Wang et al, 2020 ), Karst regions ( Hu et al, 2020 ), South Africa ( Gqozo et al, 2020 ), and the Arctic ( Grau et al, 2017 ).…”