TY - JOUR
T1 - The effects of afforestation on soil bacterial communities in temperate grassland are modulated by soil chemical properties
AU - Wu, Shu Hong
AU - Huang, Bing Hong
AU - Gao, Jian
AU - Wang, Siqi
AU - Liao, Pei Chun
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (to Shu-Hong Wu) and supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 105-2628-B-003-001-MY3 and MOST 105-2628-B-003-002-MY3) (to Pei-Chun Liao). This article was also subsidized by the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Funding Information:
We thank Dr. Dawn Schmidt for English editing of the manuscript. This research was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (to Shu-Hong Wu) and supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 105-2628-B-003-001-MY3 and MOST 105-2628-B-003-002-MY3) (to Pei-Chun Liao). This article was also subsidized by the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Wu et al.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Grassland afforestation dramatically affects the abiotic, biotic, and ecological function properties of the original ecosystems. Interference from afforestation might disrupt the stasis of soil physicochemical properties and the dynamic balance of microbiota. Some studies have suggested low sensitivity of soil properties and bacterial community to afforestation, but the apparent lack of a significant relationship is probably due to the confounding effects of the generalist habitat and rare bacterial communities. In this study, soil chemical and prokaryotic properties in a 30-year-old Mongolia pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica Litv.) afforested region and adjacent grassland in Inner Mongolia were classified and quantified. Our results indicate that the high richness of rare microbes accounts for the alpha-diversity of the soil microbiome. Few OTUs of generalist (core bacteria) and habitat-specialist bacteria are present. However, the high abundance of this small number of OTUs governs the beta-diversity of the grassland and afforested land bacterial communities. Afforestation has changed the soil chemical properties, thus indirectly affecting the soil bacterial composition rather than richness. The contents of soil P, Ca 2+ , and Fe 3+ account for differentially abundant OTUs such as Planctomycetes and subsequent changes in the ecologically functional potential of soil bacterial communities due to grassland afforestation. We conclude that grassland afforestation has changed the chemical properties and composition of the soil and ecological functions of the soil bacterial community and that these effects of afforestation on the microbiome have been modulated by changes in soil chemical properties.
AB - Grassland afforestation dramatically affects the abiotic, biotic, and ecological function properties of the original ecosystems. Interference from afforestation might disrupt the stasis of soil physicochemical properties and the dynamic balance of microbiota. Some studies have suggested low sensitivity of soil properties and bacterial community to afforestation, but the apparent lack of a significant relationship is probably due to the confounding effects of the generalist habitat and rare bacterial communities. In this study, soil chemical and prokaryotic properties in a 30-year-old Mongolia pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica Litv.) afforested region and adjacent grassland in Inner Mongolia were classified and quantified. Our results indicate that the high richness of rare microbes accounts for the alpha-diversity of the soil microbiome. Few OTUs of generalist (core bacteria) and habitat-specialist bacteria are present. However, the high abundance of this small number of OTUs governs the beta-diversity of the grassland and afforested land bacterial communities. Afforestation has changed the soil chemical properties, thus indirectly affecting the soil bacterial composition rather than richness. The contents of soil P, Ca 2+ , and Fe 3+ account for differentially abundant OTUs such as Planctomycetes and subsequent changes in the ecologically functional potential of soil bacterial communities due to grassland afforestation. We conclude that grassland afforestation has changed the chemical properties and composition of the soil and ecological functions of the soil bacterial community and that these effects of afforestation on the microbiome have been modulated by changes in soil chemical properties.
KW - Grassland afforestation
KW - Microbial composition
KW - Microbial ecological function
KW - Soil chemical properties
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U2 - 10.7717/peerj.6147
DO - 10.7717/peerj.6147
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85059852307
SN - 2167-8359
VL - 2019
JO - PeerJ
JF - PeerJ
IS - 1
M1 - e6147
ER -