Temporal and spatial succession and dynamics of soil fungal communities in restored grassland on the Loess Plateau in China

Abstract

Natural secondary succession of degraded soil has improved the ecological environment of the Loess Plateau, profoundly influencing the succession and dynamics of soil fungal communities restored grasslands in particular. This chronosequence and the varied topography of the Loess Plateau thus provide a unique opportunity to synchronously investigate the variation of soil quality and fungal communities as they develop over time and space. Here, we used high-throughput sequencing of the ITS rRNA gene region to analyze the fungal community at a local scale. Edaphic variables and fungal community characteristics were compared among three restoration durations (5, 20, and 30 years), two soil layers (topsoil and subsoil), and different topographic factors (slope positions and aspects). Edaphic variables displayed varying patterns with significant differences among restoration durations and soil layers, but no such topographic patterns were found. As succession proceeded, alpha and beta diversities of fungal communities changed as space changed; whereas, over time, the discrepancy in community composition between the two soil layers declined.Constructed co-occurrence networks of edaphic variables combined with fungal community composition and distribution patterns based on indicator and keystone species also varied among three durations. Fungal trophic guilds showed a contrasting distribution between the two soil layers, but they closely followed the soil nutrient conditions and metabolic characteristics of keystone species. Our results demonstrated that predictable spatial variation occurs in soil fungal communities in tandem with temporal succession and dynamics of indicator and keystone species in restored grassland on the Loess Plateau.

Soil potassium is correlated with root secondary metabolites and root-associated core bacteria in licorice of different ages

“…The temporal dynamics of soil microbial communities are usually investigated in chronosequences of land restoration in natural conditions (Lauber et al 2013 ; Liu et al 2019 ) and different developmental stages of crop plants root microbiota (Zhang et al 2018 ). A vital indicator for the dynamics of microbial succession is the temporal turnover of the time–decay relationships, which have been used to describe decreasing community similarities over time (Nekola and White 1999 ).…”

Comparison of soil microbial community between reseeding grassland and natural grassland in Songnen Meadow

“…Hence, according to the actual situation of the Songnen Plain, a lot of degraded grassland or abandoned farmland has been converted to reseeding grassland via natural succession. In fact, the vegetation restoration changes environment condition, by directly modifying root systems, and the exudates as well indirectly affecting soil quality and even soil microbes 20,21 . Concurrently, some studies have suggested that plant succession could significantly alter the structure of SMC and have a large-scale effect on soil carbon and nitrogen content 22,23 .…”

Identification of Fungal Dynamics Associated With Black Locust Leaves Mineralization and Their Correlations With Physicochemical Factors

“…Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric testing ("agricolae" package) was used to distinguish significant differences among groups. Gephi was used for the network analysis, and the parameters (Liu et al, 2019) and genera with low abundances (<0.001%) were eliminated from each group (De et al, 2018). All correlations in the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) abundance were used to create a network in which each node represents one OTU, and each edge represents the correlation between the nodes and significant correlations between the nodes.…”

“…Based on previous research of the relationship between keystone species and environmental factors (Liu et al, 2019), the introduction of BL decreases the forest habitat humidity and enhances the fungal community. As a fast-growing tree, BL also uses nutrients (Duan et al, 2017).…”