Increasing of soil iron-bound organic carbon by microorganisms mediated iron/carbon cycle after the mattic layer slipped in alpine meadow

Abstract

Iron (Fe) binding was an important mechanism for the stabilisation of organic carbon (C) in soils. Slipping of the mattic layer exposes soils and changes the microbial Fe cycling and iron-bound organic carbon (Fe-OC) distribution. The coupled relationships were investigated among Fe, C, and key Fe redox cycling functional genes in the alpine meadows with and without mattic layer in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Compared with the meadow layer and eluvial horizon, SOC content decreased by 17.7 g kg⁻¹ from 39.7−90.3 g kg⁻¹ after the mattic layer slipped, while the Fe-OC% increased from 2.7% and 5.7% to 12.7%. The proportion of the residual Fe fraction (RES-Fe) increased by 5.2% to 7.9%, and the organic matter-bound Fe fraction (OM-Fe) was decreased by 6%, the shift in Fe fractions caused an increase of Fe-OC%. Furthermore, the total average signal intensity of the genes for Fe cycling and redox was increased. The proportion of RES-Fe increased with CirA, feoB, fhuE and ahpC, fnr, narJ, perR, and soxR. The proportion of RED-Fe decreased with the fhuE and narI genes. In conclusion, the shift in Fe redox genes can be expected to increase the RES-Fe fractions, which promoted the accumulation of Fe-OC after the mattic layer slipped.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

iron cycling / Fe-bound organic carbon / alpine meadow / mattic layer slip / Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Highlight

	● Fe-OC content decreased after the mattic layer slipped at the same soil horizon.
	● Fe-OC and Fe redox gene diversity increased after the mattic layer slipped.
	● The content of Fe-OC was influenced by RES-Fe and RED-Fe.
	● RES-Fe and RED-Fe are mainly driven by genes fhuE and narI , respectively.

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