Driving force of soil microbial community structure in a burned area of Daxing’anling, China

Abstract

Fires are an important factor impacting forest ecosystems of Daxing’anling and have a significant effect on soil microbial community structure. In this study, high-throughput sequencing for 16S rDNA and ITS rDNA were applied to analyze the changing characteristics and driving factors of bacterial and fungal community structures in burned areas with different fire severity. PICRUSt2 software was used to predict the functional characteristics of burned areas with different fire severity. The purpose was to unveil the responsive relationships among the structure and function of bacterial and fungal communities, fire severity, and post-disturbance restoration times. After high severity fires, the destruction of surface vegetation and loss of soil nutrients reduced the diversity and abundance of soil bacteria and fungi. The soil bacteria community structure, which was dominated by Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria, changed to be dominated by Proteobacteria and Chloroflexi. As well, soil fungal community changed from domination by Helotiales, Eurotiales and Russulales to domination by Archaeorhizomycetales and Helotiales. Over time, soil bacterial community was gradually restored to pre-fire levels 30 years after the fire. Soil fungal community changed and failed to restore to pre-fire levels after 30 years. After low/intermediate severity fires, environmental factors were relatively unchanged so that soil bacteria diversity and abundance increased, optimizing community composition. The diversity and abundance of soil fungi decreased and the community structure changed slightly. Over time, both bacterial and fungal communities were gradually restored to pre-fire levels 30 years after the fire. After fire disturbance, with increasing severity, soil carbon fixation, lignin degradation, mineralization of organic nitrogen and hydrolysis of organic phosphorus are enhanced. Denitrification is weakened. Therefore, forest fires have certain positive effects on carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles where soil bacteria and fungi are involved.

Keywords

Forest fire / Soil bacteria / Soil fungi / High-throughput sequencing / Driving force

References

[1] Akburak S, Son Y, Makineci E, Meri A. Impacts of low-intensity prescribed fire on microbial and chemical soil properties in a Quercus frainetto forest. J For Res, 2018, 29(3): 687-696.

[2] Austin MP, Smith TM. A new model for the continuum concept in Progress in theoretical vegetation science. Vegetatio, 1990, 83: 35-47.

[3] Brais S, David P, Ouimet R. Impact of wild fire severity and salvage harvesting on the nutrient balance of jack pine and black spruce boreal stands. For Ecol Manag, 2000, 137: 231-243.

[4] Cai YF, Wu YC, Wang SW, Yan XY, Zhu YG, Jia ZJ. Microbial metabolism in typical flooded paddy soils. Acta Microbiol Sin, 2014, 54(9): 1033-1044.

[5] Chaudhry V, Rehman A, Mishra A, Chauhan PS, Nautiyal CS. Changes in bacterial community structure of agricultural land due to long-term organic and chemical amendments. Microbial Ecol, 2012, 64: 450-460.

[6] Chen F, Zeng D, Zhou B, Singh AN, Fan ZP. Seasonal variation in soil nitrogen availability under Mongolian pine plantations at the Keerqin Sand Lands, China. J Arid Environ, 2006, 67: 226-239.

[7] Chen ZJ, Gao SK, Chen Y, He PH, He Q, Qiu Q, Li JY. Effects of short-term fertilization on soil fungal community structure and functional group in Eucalyptus artificial forest. Acta Ecol Sin, 2020, 40(11): 1-9.

[8] Elsas JD, Boersma FG. A review of molecular methods to study the microbiota of soil and the microsphere. Eur J Soil Biol, 2011, 47: 77-87.

[9] Felske A, Wolterink A, Van-Lis R, Devos WM, Akkermans AD. Response of a soil bacterial community to grassland succession as monitored by 16S rRNA levels of the predominant ribo types. Appl Environ Microbiol, 2000, 66(9): 3998-4003.

[10] Fierer N, Bradford MA, Jackson RB. Towards an ecological classification of soil bacteria. Ecology, 2007, 88: 1354-1364.

[11] Fontaine S, Mariotti A, Abbadie L. The priming effect of organic matter: a question of microbial competition?. Soil Biol Biochem, 2003, 35: 837-843.

[12] Galloway JN, Dentener FJ, Capone DG, Boyer EW, Howarth RW, Seitzinger SP, Asner GP, Cleveland CC, Green PA, Holland EA, Karl DM, Michaels AF, Porter JH, Townsend AR, Vorosmarty CJ. Nitrogen cycles: past, present, and future. Biogeochemistry, 2004, 70: 153-226.

[13] Gholz HL, Wedin DA, Smitherman SM, Harmon ME, Parton WJ. Long-term dynamics of pine and hardwood litter in contrasting environments: towards a global model of decomposition. Glob Change Biol, 2000, 6: 751-765.

[14] Han WX, Fang JY, Guo DL, Zhang Y. Leaf nitrogen and phosphorus stoichiometry across 753 terrestrial plant species in China. New Phytol, 2005, 168: 377-385.

[15] Holden SR, Rogers BM, Treseder KK. Fire severity influences the response of soil microbes to a boreal forest fire. Environ Res Lett, 2016, 11: 035004.

[16] Kaiser K, Wemheuer B, Korolkow V, Wemheuer F, Nacke H, Schoening I, Schrumpf M, Daniel R. Driving forces of soil bacterial community structure, diversity, and function in temperate grasslands and forests. Sci Rep, 2016, 6: 33696.

[17] Key CH, Benson NC (2006) Landscape assessment: sampling and analysis methods. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Report, Ogden, UT, USA

[18] Kuramae EE, Gamper HA, Yergeau E, Piceno YM, Brodie EL, Desantis TZ, Andersen GL, Veen JA, Kowalchuk GA. Microbial secondary succession in a chrono sequence of chalk grasslands. ISME J, 2010, 4(5): 711-715.

[19] Li MJ, Yu LF, Du MF, Huang ZS, Shi JH. C, N, and P stoichiometry and their interaction with plants, litter, and soil in a Cunninghamia lanceolate plantation with different ages. Acta Ecol Sin, 2018, 38: 7772-7781.

[20] Li ZJ, Shen YX, Zhao GJ, Yu ZF, Chen FJ, Xiao GY (2020) Changes of soil fungi and bacteria after forest soil transplantation. Microbiol China 1–13. https://doi.org/10.13344/j.microbiol.china.190948

[21] Liu ZG, Li YC, Zhang SA, Fu YQ, Fan XH, Patel JS, Zhang M. Characterization of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria isolated from calcareous soils. Appl Soil Ecol, 2015, 96: 217-224.

[22] Liu GL, Niu SW, Xu JY, Sui SJ, Ye X, Wang N. Effects of optimized N fertilization on rice soil bacterial diversity of rice crab symbiosis system analyzed by high-throughput sequencing technology. J Jilin Agric Univ, 2019, 41(6): 686-694.

[23] Luo ZB, Ma J, Chen F, Li XX, Zhang Q, Yang YJ. Adaptive development of soil bacterial communities to ecological processes caused by mining activities in the loess plateau, China. Microorganisms, 2020, 8: 1-22.

[24] Man SA, Herre EA, Bever JD. Specificity between Neotropical tree seedlings and their fungal mutualists leads to plant-soil feedback. Ecology, 2010, 91: 2594-2603.

[25] Mao C, Qi LH. Research advances in forest soil nitrogen transformation and cycling. World For Res, 2015, 28(2): 8-13. (in Chinese)

[26] Mcgroddy ME, Daufresne T, Hedin LO. Scaling of C: N: P stoichiometry in forests worldwide: implications of terrestrial redfield-type ratios. Ecology, 2004, 85: 2390-2401.

[27] Mickan BS, Abbott LK, Fan JW. Application of compost and clay under water-stressed conditions influences functional diversity of rhizosphere bacteria. Biol Fertil Soils, 2017, 54(1): 55-70.

[28] Pan MF, Jiang M, Zhou ZW. The latest research progress of lignin biodegradation. Mater GUIDE, 2011, 11(25): 372-377. (in Chinese)

[29] Parton W, Silver WL, Burke IC, Grassens L, Harmon ME, Currie WS, King JY, Adair EC, Brandt LA, Hart SC, Fasth B. Global-scale similarities in nitrogen release patterns during long-term decomposition. Science, 2007, 315: 361-364.

[30] Podgorskii VS. Leaching of silicon containing rock using Bacillus mucilaginosus. Mikrobiologichesdiizhurnal, 1988, 50: 25-30.

[31] Rasche F, Knapp D, Kaiser C, Koranda M, Kitzler B, Zechmeister-Boltenstern S, Richter A, Sessitsch A. Seasonality and resource availability control bacterial and archaeal communities in soils of a temperate beech forest. ISME J, 2011, 5: 389-402.

[32] Rosling A, Cox F, Cruz-Martinez K, Ihrmark K, Grelet GA, Lindahl BD, Menkis A, James TY. Archaeorhizomycetes: unearthing an ancient class of ubiquitous soil fungi. Science, 2011, 333: 876-900.

[33] Schmidta R, Mitchellb J, Scow K. Cover cropping and no-till increase diversity and symbiotroph: saprotroph ratios of soil fungal communities. Soil Biol Biochem, 2019, 129: 99-109.

[34] Shen CC, Xiong JB, Zhang HY. Soil pH drives the spatial distribution of bacterial communities along elevation on Changbai Mountain. Soil Biol Biochem, 2013, 57: 204-211.

[35] Shigeto O, Image S, Aiichiro K. Community structure of soil bacteria in a tropical rainforest several years after fire. Microbes Environ, 2008, 23: 49-56.

[36] Sierra J. Relationship between mineral N content and N mineralization rate in disturbed and undisturbed soil samples incubated under field and laboratory conditions. Soil Res, 1992, 30: 477-492.

[37] Tian Y, Zhang QL, Liu X, Meng M. Stem radius variation in response to hydro-thermal factors in larch. Forests, 2018 9 10 602

[38] Van SO, Doamba SW, Corre MD, Veldkamp E. Impacts of burning on soil trace gas fluxes in two wooded savanna sites in Burkina Faso. J Arid Environ, 2019, 165: 132-140.

[39] Villadas PJ, Díaz S, Rodríguez A, Arco-Aguilar M, Fernandez-Gonzalez A, Perez-Yepez J, Arbelo C, Gonzalez-Mancebo JM, Fernandez-Lopez M, Leon-Barrios M. The soil microbiome of the laurel forest in Garajonay National Park (La Gomera, Canary Islands): comparing unburned and burned habitats after a wildfire. Forests, 2019, 10: 1051.

[40] Vries FT. Abiotic drivers and plant traits explain landscape-scale patterns in soil microbial communities. Ecol Lett, 2012, 15(11): 1230-1239.

[41] Wallenius TH, Kuuluvainen T, Vanha-Majamaa I. Fire history in relation to site type and vegetation in Vienansalo wilderness in eastern Fennoscandia, Russia. Can J For Res, 2004, 34: 1400-1409.

[42] Wang XG, Li H, Bezemer TM, Zhanqing H. Drivers of bacterial beta diversity in two temperate forests. Ecol Res, 2016, 31: 57-64.

[43] Wang XG, Sun RB, Tian YP, Guo K, Sun HY, Liu XJ, Chu HY, Liu BB. Long-term phytoremediation of coastal saline soil reveals plant species-specific patterns of microbial community recruitment. Ecol Evolut Sci, 2020, 5: e00741-19.

[44] Weier K, Macrae I, Myers R. Denitrification in a clay soil under pasture and annual crop: estimation of potential losses using intact soil cores. Soil Biol Biochem, 1993, 25: 991-997.

[45] Wu QZ, Lu J, Ji CS. Effects of undergrowth vegetation management measures on the soil bacterial community structure of large diameter timber plantation of Cunningham lanceolate. Chin J Appl Ecol, 2020, 31(2): 407-416. (in Chinese)

[46] Xiong D, Ou J, Li LP, Yang ST, He YJ, Li ZC. Diversity of Rhododendron rhizome fungi in Pinus massoniana-Rhododendron community in central Guizhou. J Southwest Univ, 2019, 41: 21-29. (in Chinese)

[47] Yuan HZ, Qin HL, Liu SL, Nie SA, Wei WX, Wu JS. Advances in research of molecular ecology of carbon fixation microorganism. Sci Agric Sin, 2011, 44: 2951-2958.

[48] Zhang YH, Jian N, Tang FP. The effects of different human disturbance regimes on root fungal diversity of Rhododendron ovatum in subtropical forests of China. Can J For Res, 2016, 47: 659-666.

[49] Zhang H, Yue Y, Song XM (2020) Hulunbeier climate change impact on forest grassland fire and future trend analysis. J Nanjing For Univ (Nat Sci Edn) 44(5):222–230 (in Chinese)