Vegetation richness, species identity and soil nutrients drive the shifts in soil bacterial communities during restoration process

Abstract

Soil bacteria play an essential role in functioning of ecosystems and maintaining of biogeochemical cycles. However, little is known about changes in the compositions and functional groups of soil bacterial communities during different restoration stages. The influences of aboveground vegetation and belowground soil properties on soil bacterial communities were also unclear during this process. Here we sequenced the soil bacterial communities in different stages of sand fixation. Sand fixation increased the diversity of the bacterial communities, among which the populations of Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes changed significantly. The function prediction showed sand fixation increased Gram-positive and aerobic bacteria. Bacterial structure is significantly correlated with plant richness, coverage and biomass. In particular, we found species identity was an important determinant in structuring bacterial composition. Soil properties were all significantly correlated with soil bacterial community richness and diversity. Fusobacteria was strongly positively correlated with sand, Chloroflexi with total N and Gemmatimonadetes with SOM and total C. It suggested that soil nutrients (TC, TN and SOM) have large consequences for soil bacterial community dissimilarities. These results indicated that vegetation richness, especially species identity, together with improvement in soil nutrients, play key roles in driving the shifts in soil microbial community structure and function during restoration process.

Phylum Gemmatimonadota and Its Role in the Environment

“…Gemmatimonadota were also found to be one of the bacterial phyla that are positively correlated with vegetation restoration. As one of top-ten most abundant phyla that strongly increased with revegetation, their relative abundances were above 2% [88] and Gemmatimonadota were also found to be one of the bacterial phyla that are positively correlated with vegetation restoration. As one of top-ten most abundant phyla that strongly increased with revegetation, their relative abundances were above 2% [88] and were positively correlated with plant richness and soil nutrients such as carbon.…”

Near-natural transformation of Pinus tabuliformis better improve soil nutrients and soil microbial community

“…In the analysis of the relationships between soil chemical properties and the dominant bacterial communities, we found that Proteobacteria significantly declined with TN and AN, while increased with soil C/N. Gemmatimonadetes existed negative relation with the TP, however, previous study demonstrated that the relative abundance of Gemmatimonadetes was positively influenced by TC and SOM (Liu et al, 2020), suggesting that relatively high soil nutrients might stimulate the increase of the relative abundance of Gemmatimonadetes (Rosling et al, 2011). Chloroflexi appeared to be the significant positive correlation with soil pH, TN, TP, AN, and AK, similar with existed observation (Liu et al, 2020), while existed obviously negative relation with C/N, which was consistent with the investigations of the study from Wan et al (2015).…”

“…Gemmatimonadetes existed negative relation with the TP, however, previous study demonstrated that the relative abundance of Gemmatimonadetes was positively influenced by TC and SOM (Liu et al, 2020), suggesting that relatively high soil nutrients might stimulate the increase of the relative abundance of Gemmatimonadetes (Rosling et al, 2011). Chloroflexi appeared to be the significant positive correlation with soil pH, TN, TP, AN, and AK, similar with existed observation (Liu et al, 2020), while existed obviously negative relation with C/N, which was consistent with the investigations of the study from Wan et al (2015). What's more, other investigations also indicated that soil pH, TC and TN have impacts on the composition of bacterial communities (Cho, Kim & Lee, 2016;Barcenas-Moreno, Bååth & Rousk, 2016;Dawud et al, 2016).…”

Slope Aspect Affects The Soil Microbial Communities In Karst Tiankeng Negative Landforms

“…The RDA and correlation results showed that the vegetation characteristics (species richness and coverage) and soil properties (SOM and pH) were the main drivers of microbial community structure. The type of vegetation community determines the initial composition of the microbial community, and vegetation affects the structure of the microbial community by affecting the soil environment [35,36]. The soil SOM content in karst areas is severely affected by soil erosion and degradation [37].…”