Contribution of soil variables to bacterial community composition following land use change in Napahai plateau wetlands. (15th September 2019) - Lu, Mei
Abstract: Land use changes have significant modifications on soil conditions, which is likely to induce alterations in the soil bacterial communities. Little is known about the respective contributions of soil variables to these changes in bacterial communities. For this study, high-throughput sequencing technology was applied to measure the change in bacterial community compositions under the effects of soil variables across three land-use types (i.e., reference, degraded, and agricultural wetlands) in the Napahai plateau. Compared with the reference wetland, a pronounced decrease (1.5–5.3 times) in soil water content, soil organic matter, and total and available nitrogen was observed in degraded and agricultural wetlands. However, a conspicuous increase (1.3–5.7 times) was found for the total and available phosphorus, and potassium. Land use also strongly affected the taxonomic composition of soil bacterial assemblages, changing the normalized ratio of Acidobacteria to Proteobacteia, or to δ - proteobacteia . Soil properties had different contributions to the variations in abundance composition of bacterial community. Soil available phosphorus and potassium were the best predictors for changes in bacterial community composition, explaining 80.9% and 82% of the variations, respectively. In contrast, soil organic matter, carbon/nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total and available nitrogen accounted for 58.7–72.7% of the variations in bacterial community composition. Soil pH (24.6%) and soil water content (40.4%) had a minor contribution. Our data suggested that the compositional alterations of microbial communities following land-use change were likely realized through modifications in the availability of primary soil nutrients in the Napahai plateau wetlands. Highlights: Land use decreased carbon/nitrogen and increased phosphorus/potassium in soils. Land use affected taxonomic composition and diversity of the bacterial assemblages. Land use altered the ratio of Acidobacteria to Proteobacteia, or to δ-proteobacteia. Soil properties had diverse modification on bacterial community compositions.