The Biogeography of Forest Soil Microbial Functional Diversity Responds to Forest Types across Guangxi, Southwest China

Abstract

Vegetation and soil have spatial distributions at different scales, while the spatial distribution of soil microorganisms and factors driving their distribution are still unclear. We aimed to reveal the spatial pattern of microbial functional diversity and to identify its drivers in forest soils at a regional scale. Here, we performed an investigation of microbes across several forest types covering an area of 236,700 km2 in Guangxi, southwest China. We examined a total of 185 samples for soil microbial functional diversity using Biolog EcoPlates. The soil microbial functional diversity had strong spatial heterogeneity across the Guangxi region. The distribution of microorganisms in forest soils was mainly determined by total nitrogen, available N, and C:N ratio, and stand age. We found that coniferous forests, especially pine forest, exhibited lower functional diversity, but the reverse was true for deciduous broadleaf forest/mixed evergreen and deciduous broadleaf forest. Our findings suggested that a heterogeneous distribution of microbial functional diversity in forest soils is related to forest types in Guangxi, China. In conclusion, high soil microbial functional diversity is favored in subtropical forests with looser soil structure, lower soil C:N ratio, greater total soil nitrogen and available nitrogen concentration, and broad-leaved tree species.

Synergistic variation of rhizosphere soil phosphorus availability and microbial diversity with stand age in plantations of the endangered tree species Parashorea chinensis

“…This study showed that the longer the time after plantation, the more obvious differences in microbial community composition will be, especially the species composition of fungal communities will be richer, which is consistent with the results of soil studies in subtropical Pinus elliottii plantations (Wu et al, 2017). This is corroborated by other studies that soil microbial diversity in Guangxi is highly heterogeneous, and this heterogeneity is mainly determined by the stand age and soil nutrient effectiveness (Peng et al, 2021). Studies in Pinus tabuliformis plantations of different stand age, resulted in the abundance of most dominant bacterial and fungal communities being significantly correlated with organic carbon, total N, C:N ratio, available N, and available P, indicating the dependence of these microorganisms on soil nutrients (Dang et al, 2017).…”

Differential Response of Soil Microbial Community Structure in Coal Mining Areas during Different Ecological Restoration Processes

“…Moreover, changes in soil abiotic factors, such as soil bulk and porosity [6,7] and soil nutrients [8], e.g., soil organic matter [9], nitrogen, and phosphorus contents and compositions [10,11], and the addition of soil admixtures, such as biochar [12], have been established to have a prominent influence on soil microbial diversity, community composition, and function. However, the spatial scale distribution of soil micro-organisms and the drivers of microbial community function have yet to be sufficiently ascertained [13,14]. Consequently, clarifying the impacts of changes in soil properties on microbial communities and functions in response to different soil remediation Processes 2022, 10, 2013 2 of 21 techniques will contribute to further investigations of the geochemical cycling processes of soil chemical elements.…”