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Effect of vegetation on soil bacteria and their potential functions for ecological restoration in the Hulun Buir Sandy Land, China

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Abstract

To date, much of research on revegetation has focused on soil microorganisms due to their contributions in the formation of soil and soil remediation process. However, little is known about the soil bacteria and their functions respond to the diverse vegetational types in the process of vegetation restoration. Effects of dominated vegetation, i.e., Artemisia halodendron Turcz Ex Bess, Caragana microphylla Lam., Hedysarum fruticosum Pall. and Pinus sylvestris L. on bacterial community structures and their potential functions in the Hulun Buir Sandy Land, China were determined using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states (PICRUSt) in 2015. Although the dominant phyla of soil bacterial community among different types of vegetation, including Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, were similar, the relative abundance of these dominant groups significantly differed, indicating that different types of vegetation might result in variations in the composition of soil bacterial community. In addition, functional genes of bacterial populations were similar among different types of vegetation, whereas its relative abundance was significantly differed. Most carbon fixation genes showed a high relative abundance in P. sylvestris, vs. recalcitrant carbon decomposition genes in A. halodendron, suggesting the variations in carbon cycling potential of different types of vegetation. Abundance of assimilatory nitrate reduction genes was the highest in P. sylvestris, vs. dissimilatory nitrate reduction and nitrate reductase genes in A. halodendron, indicating higher nitrogen gasification loss and lower nitrogen utilization gene functions in A. halodendron. The structures and functional genes of soil bacterial community showed marked sensitivities to different plant species, presenting the potentials for regulating soil carbon and nitrogen cycling.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0500905), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31600584), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2015ZCQSB-02). We would like to thank the staff of the Yanchi Research Station, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China, with special thanks to Dr. QIN Shugao, Dr. LAI Zongrui, Dr. SUN Yanfei, Dr. LIU Zhen, Dr. BAI Yuxuan and Dr. SHE Weiwei for their help with the field and laboratory work.

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  1. Yanchi Research Station, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Ru Yan & Wei Feng

  2. Engineering Research Center of Forestry Ecological Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Wei Feng

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Yan, R., Feng, W. Effect of vegetation on soil bacteria and their potential functions for ecological restoration in the Hulun Buir Sandy Land, China. J. Arid Land 12, 473–494 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-020-0011-z

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