The distribution of soil alkaline phosphatase (phoD) gene harbouring bacteria across Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Highlights

	● phoD richness and abundance was higher on the southeastern than northwestern plateau.
	● phoD richness first increased, then decreased with rising temperatures.
	● phoD richness increased consistently with higher humidity.
	● Warm, humid conditions led to soil acidification, driving phoD taxa distribution.

Abstract

The alkaline phosphatase (phoD) gene-encoding bacterial communities (phoD-harbouring communities, hereafter) play crucial roles in organic phosphorus (Po) mineralisation across global terrestrial ecosystems. However, their geographic distribution and driving factors remain unclear, largely due to the mosaic temperature and humidity patterns and the lack of comprehensive high-resolution sampling data across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. We addressed this gap using amplicon sequencing techniques and analyses of soil properties as well as plant biomass. Plant biomass, soil organic carbon (C), Po content, C:P ratio, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, and the richness and abundance of key soil phoD-harbouring taxa were higher in warmer, more humid regions, such as the southeastern plateau than the northeastern plateau, while soil pH followed an inverse trend. Soil pH and Po content emerged as the key factors shaping the geographic distribution of phoD-harbouring communities. Acidic soils were associated with higher C:P ratios, community richness, ALP activity, and Po content than alkaline soils. Our findings suggest that warmer, more humid regions promote soil acidification, which in turn drive changes in phoD-harbouring communities, enhance ALP activity, and stimulate Po mineralisation. This study provides new insights into the geographic distribution of phoD-harbouring communities and their role in Po mineralisation across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

alkaline phosphatase / geographic distribution / organic phosphorus mineralisation / phosphorus fractions / phoD-harbouring community / Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

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Author contributions

LX and XZL conceived the project. LX, JBL and CNL collected samples. LX, JBL, and MJY performed the experiments. LX, JBL and CNL carried out bioinformatic and statistical analyses. LX prepared the original draft. LX, JBL, CTW, WDK, XZL acquired funding. All authors read, edited, and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42477117, U20A2008, 32100076) and the Project of Grassland Multifunctionality Evaluation in Three-River-Source National Park (Grant No. QHQXD-2023-28), Special Project for Guiding Local Science and Technology Development by the Central Government of China (Sichuan Province) (Grant No. 2023ZYD0103) and the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (Grant No. 2023NSFSC1165). We appreciated the excellent editing work by Lisa Sheppard. Opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Illinois State Water Survey, the Prairie Research Institute, or the University of Illinois. Dr. Junming Wang gratefully acknowledged the support for this research from the Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Data accessibility statement

Raw sequences have been deposited in the China National Centre for Bioinformation (CNCB), Genome Sequence Archive (GSA) under Project accession number PRJCA019578. All predicted high-resolution images of soil properties and phoD-harbouring taxa are available on Figshare, with the following accession “https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.26156521”.

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s42832-024-0282-y and is accessible for authorized users.

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