Identifying general patterns in microbial community responses to global change factors remains a challenge in soil ecology, partially due to different methods used to characterize microbial communities among studies. In this study, we used DNA-based (qPCR, sequencing) and PLFA approaches to assess microbial responses to both land use change and drought-rewetting. Both methods detected microbial community responses to land use change but the drought-rewetting responses detected by the two methods were qualitatively different: PLFAs revealed clear effects of soil drying on microbial communities, which 16S sequencing did not. In contrast, sequencing revealed strong responses to rewetting, which PLFAs did not show. Further, PLFAs revealed a marked increase in fungal:bacterial (F:B) ratios following drought, which was not evident in our qPCR data. Overall, our results show that full elucidation of microbial community responses to global change will require the use of multiple methodological approaches.

确定微生物群落对全球变化因素反应的一般模式仍然是土壤生态学中的一项挑战，部分原因是研究中用于表征微生物群落的方法不同。在这项研究中，我们使用基于 DNA（qPCR、测序）和 PLFA 的方法来评估微生物对土地利用变化和干旱再润湿的反应。两种方法都检测到微生物群落对土地利用变化的反应，但两种方法检测到的干旱再润湿反应在性质上是不同的：PLFAs 揭示了土壤干燥对微生物群落的明显影响，而 16S 测序没有。相比之下，测序揭示了对再润湿的强烈反应，而 PLFA 没有显示出来。此外，PLFA 显示干旱后真菌：细菌（F：B）比率显着增加，这在我们的 qPCR 数据中并不明显。