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Title: Zonal Soil Type Determines Soil Microbial Responses to Maize Cropping and Fertilization

Journal Article · · mSystems
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
  2. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Nanjing (China)
  3. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Nanjing (China); Ningbo Academy of Agricultural Sciences (China)
  4. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); Guangdong Ocean Univ., Zhanjiang (China)
  5. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
  6. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Microbial communities are essential drivers of soil functional processes such as nitrification and heterotrophic respiration. Although there is initial evidence revealing the importance of soil type in shaping microbial communities, there has been no in-depth, comprehensive survey to robustly establish it as a major determinant of microbial community composition, functional gene structure, or ecosystem functioning. We examined bacterial and fungal community structures using Illumina sequencing, microbial functional genes using GeoChip, microbial biomass using phospholipid fatty acid analysis, as well as functional processes of soil nitrification potential and CO2 efflux. We demonstrated the critical role of soil type in determining microbial responses to land use changes at the continental level. Our findings underscore the inherent difficulty in generalizing ecosystem responses across landscapes and suggest that assessments of community feedback must take soil types into consideration. Soil types heavily influence ecological dynamics. It remains controversial to what extent soil types shape microbial responses to land management changes, largely due to lack of in-depth comparison across various soil types. Here, we collected samples from three major zonal soil types spanning from cold temperate to subtropical climate zones. We examined bacterial and fungal community structures, as well as microbial functional genes. Different soil types had distinct microbial biomass levels and community compositions. Five years of maize cropping (growing corn or maize) changed the bacterial community composition of the Ultisol soil type and the fungal composition of the Mollisol soil type but had little effect on the microbial composition of the Inceptisol soil type. Meanwhile, 5 years of fertilization resulted in soil acidification. Microbial compositions of the Mollisol and Ultisol, but not the Inceptisol, were changed and correlated (P < 0.05) with soil pH. These results demonstrated the critical role of soil type in determining microbial responses to land management changes. We also found that soil nitrification potentials correlated with the total abundance of nitrifiers and that soil heterotrophic respiration correlated with the total abundance of carbon degradation genes, suggesting that changes in microbial community structure had altered ecosystem processes. Microbial communities are essential drivers of soil functional processes such as nitrification and heterotrophic respiration. Although there is initial evidence revealing the importance of soil type in shaping microbial communities, there has been no in-depth, comprehensive survey to robustly establish it as a major determinant of microbial community composition, functional gene structure, or ecosystem functioning. We examined bacterial and fungal community structures using Illumina sequencing, microbial functional genes using GeoChip, microbial biomass using phospholipid fatty acid analysis, as well as functional processes of soil nitrification potential and CO2 efflux. We demonstrated the critical role of soil type in determining microbial responses to land use changes at the continental level. Our findings underscore the inherent difficulty in generalizing ecosystem responses across landscapes and suggest that assessments of community feedback must take soil types into consideration.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; XDB15010102; 2013ZX07315-001-03; 41471202; XDB15030200; KFJ-SW-STS-142; 41271258; 41430856
OSTI ID:
1630596
Journal Information:
mSystems, Vol. 1, Issue 4; ISSN 2379-5077
Publisher:
American Society for MicrobiologyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 30 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Can zoosporic true fungi grow or survive in extreme or stressful environments? journal July 2010
Evaluation of heavy metal contamination in Phaeozem of northeast China journal May 2006
Methane and Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Rice Field and Related Microorganism in Black Soil, Northeastern China journal November 2005
Microbial biomass and activity in salt affected soils under arid conditions journal February 2007
Impact of long-term fertilization practices on the abundance and composition of soil bacterial communities in Northeast China journal September 2010
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Soil-forming factors and Soil Taxonomy journal August 2014
Phenol oxidase, peroxidase and organic matter dynamics of soil journal March 2010
Comparative metagenomic, phylogenetic and physiological analyses of soil microbial communities across nitrogen gradients journal December 2011
Stochastic and deterministic assembly processes in subsurface microbial communities journal March 2012
Microbial mediation of biogeochemical cycles revealed by simulation of global changes with soil transplant and cropping journal April 2014
The microbe-mediated mechanisms affecting topsoil carbon stock in Tibetan grasslands journal February 2015
Integrated metagenomics and network analysis of soil microbial community of the forest timberline journal January 2015
The diversity and biogeography of soil bacterial communities journal January 2006
Disentangling mechanisms that mediate the balance between stochastic and deterministic processes in microbial succession journal March 2015
Consistent responses of soil microbial communities to elevated nutrient inputs in grasslands across the globe journal August 2015
Cluster analysis and display of genome-wide expression patterns journal December 1998
UCHIME improves sensitivity and speed of chimera detection journal June 2011
The interactive effects of soil transplant into colder regions and cropping on soil microbiology and biogeochemistry: Effects of northward soil transplant and cropping journal February 2014
Abiotic stress tolerance and competition-related traits underlie phylogenetic clustering in soil bacterial communities journal August 2014
The effects of chronic nitrogen fertilization on alpine tundra soil microbial communities: implications for carbon and nitrogen cycling journal November 2008
New primers to amplify the fungal ITS2 region - evaluation by 454-sequencing of artificial and natural communities journal July 2012
Towards a unified paradigm for sequence-based identification of fungi journal September 2013
Long-term balanced fertilization increases the soil microbial functional diversity in a phosphorus-limited paddy soil journal December 2014
Ecological Linkages Between Aboveground and Belowground Biota journal June 2004
Interactions and Self-Organization in the Soil-Microbe Complex journal June 2004
Is Ridge Cultivation Sustainable? A Case Study from the Haean Catchment, South Korea journal January 2013
Phasing amplicon sequencing on Illumina Miseq for robust environmental microbial community analysis journal June 2015
Toward an Ecological Classification of soil Bacteria journal June 2007
Microbial Nitrogen Limitation Increases Decomposition journal August 2007
Soil Bulk Density and Penetration Resistance under Different Tillage and Crop Management Systems and Their Relationship with Barley Root Growth journal May 2003
Multivariate Regression Trees: A New Technique for Modeling Species-Environment Relationships journal April 2002
Fluctuations in ammonia oxidizing communities across agricultural soils are driven by soil structure and pH journal January 2012

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Broad‐leaved forest types affect soil fungal community structure and soil organic carbon contents journal June 2019
Crop Rotation and Straw Application Impact Microbial Communities in Italian and Philippine Soils and the Rhizosphere of Zea mays journal June 2018
Consistent bacterial selection by date palm root system across heterogeneous desert oasis agroecosystems journal March 2019
Dissimilar responses of fungal and bacterial communities to soil transplantation simulating abrupt climate changes journal April 2019
Combined Metabarcoding and Co-occurrence Network Analysis to Profile the Bacterial, Fungal and Fusarium Communities and Their Interactions in Maize Stalks journal February 2019
Progressive Microbial Community Networks with Incremental Organic Loading Rates Underlie Higher Anaerobic Digestion Performance journal January 2020
Forest Soil Fungal Community Elevational Distribution Pattern and Their Ecological Assembly Processes journal October 2019
Consistent bacterial selection by date palm root system across heterogeneous desert oasis agroecosystems journal March 2019
Progressive Microbial Community Networks with Incremental Organic Loading Rates Underlie Higher Anaerobic Digestion Performance journal January 2020
Bacteriophage–prokaryote dynamics and interaction within anaerobic digestion processes across time and space journal May 2017
Forest Soil Fungal Community Elevational Distribution Pattern and Their Ecological Assembly Processes journal October 2019

Figures / Tables (4)