Effects of plant interspecific interaction and warming on soil microbial community in root zone soil of two dominant tree species in the subalpine coniferous forest in southwestern China

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2019.0369

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims Soil microbial community composition and structure were regulated by temperature and plant species. Picea asperata and Abies faxoniana were planted in the monoculture and mixture plantations of the subalpine region in southwestern China. However, the effects of these two species and their interactions on soil microbial community under future climate warming remain unclear.
Methods An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of warming and plant species on soil microbial community composition with two levels of temperature (unwarming and warming with infrared heater) and four planting patterns (single A. faxoniana, single P. asperata, mixture of A. faxoniana and P. asperata, and unplanted bare land). Root zone soil of different planting treatments were sampled to estimating the microbial biomass and microbial community composition by the phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) content analysis.
Important findings The results indicated that: (1) Both P. asperata and A. faxoniana mono-planting significantly increased the biomass (PLFAs content) of main soil microbial groups and the whole community, regardless of warming, but the PLFAs content was only increased by mixed planting in unwarming plots. On the other hand, warming enhanced fungi (F) in unplanted plots and gram-negative bacteria (GN) in the P. asperata plots, respectively. However, warming significantly decreased soil microbial biomass in A. faxoniana and the mixed planting plots. (2) Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that effects of planting P. asperata and A. faxoniana on soil microbial community composition were greater under unwarming than under warming conditions. All the planting treatments significantly decreased the ratio of gram-positive/gram-negative bacteria (GP/GN) and increased the ratio of fungi/bacteria (F/B) in unwarming plots. However, significant effects on GP/GN and F/B ratios were only observed in A. faxoniana plots under warming condition. (3) PLFAs content was positively correlated with soil organic carbon, and F/B ratio was significantly correlated with soil pH and inorganic N. These results showed that the effects of warming on soil microbial biomass and composition varied among the tree species, and the effects of P. asperata and A. faxoniana were weakened under warming condition than under unwarming condition. Our results provide a vital theoretical basis for further study on the responses of soil microbial communities to vegetation and global climate change in southwestern China.

Key words: Picea asperata, Abies faxoniana, monoculture plantation, mixture plantation, warming, soil microbial community, phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) content

LUO Lin, HUANG Yan, LIANG Jin, WANG En-Tao, HU Jun, HE He-Liang, ZHAO Chun-Zhang. Effects of plant interspecific interaction and warming on soil microbial community in root zone soil of two dominant tree species in the subalpine coniferous forest in southwestern China[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2020, 44(8): 875-884.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2019.0369

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2020/V44/I8/875

Figures/Tables 6

Fig. 1 Contents of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) (mean ± SE) in root zone soil of different planting treatments with/ without warming. A, The content of total and bacteria PLFAs. B, The content of PLFAs of gram-negative bacteria (GN) and gram-positive bacteria (GP). C, The content of PLFAs of fungi (F) and actinomycetes (AC). U, unwarming; W, warming. C, unplanted area; Y, Picea asperata; L, Abies faxoniana; H, mixed; Fp, plant types effect; Fw, warming effect; Fp × w, plant types × warming interaction effect; *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001; ns, p > 0.05. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences in PLFAs content in root zone of different planting treatments with and without warming (p < 0.05). * under the column indicates a significant difference in the t-test (p < 0.05).

Fig. 2 Effects of different planting treatments and warming on phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) content of microbial community (mean ± SE). Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences in PLFAs cotent in root zone of different planting treatments with and without warming (p < 0.05). U, unwarming; W, warming. C, unplanted area; Y, Picea asperata; L, Abies faxoniana; H, mixed.

Fig. 3 Effects of different planting treatments and warming on soil microbial community structure. U-C, unwarming-empty area; U-H, unwarming-mixed area; U-L, unwarming-Abies faxoniana; U-Y, unwarming-Picea asperata; W-C, warming- empty area; W-H, warming-mixed area; W-L, warming-Abies faxoniana; W-Y, warming-Picea asperata.

Fig. 4 The GP/GN and F/B ratios (mean ± SE) in root zone soil of different planting treatments with and without warming. GN, gram-negative bacteria; GP, gram-positive bacteria. F, fungi; B, bacteria. U, unwarming; W, warming. C, unplanted area; Y, Picea asperata; L, Abies faxoniana; H, mixed. Fp, plant types effect; Fw, warming effect; Fp × w, plant types × warming interaction effect; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001; ns, p > 0.05. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences in the GP/GN and F/B in root zone of different planting treatments under unwarming and warming (p < 0.05). * under the column indicates a significant difference in the t-test (p < 0.05).

Table 1 Effects of different planting treatments and warming on soil physicochemical properties

土壤因子 Soil factor	处理 Treatment	C (mean ± SD)	Y (mean ± SD)	L (mean ± SD)	H (mean ± SD)	P	W	P × W
pH	U	7.69 ± 0.02^b	7.80 ± 0.04^a	7.70 ± 0.02^b	7.81 ± 0.02^a	10.82^***	1.08	4.65^*
pH	W	7.81 ± 0.02^a*	7.81 ± 0.01^a	7.67 ± 0.02^b	7.78 ± 0.03^a
SM (%)	U	30.80 ± 0.00^bc	29.60 ± 0.01^c	34.86 ± 0.01^a	32.11 ± 0.00^b	9.51^***	637.00^***	41.51^***
SM (%)	W	0.27 ± 0.00^a*	0.24 ± 0.00^b*	0.22 ± 0.00^c*	0.23 ± 0.01^bc*
TN (mg·kg^-1)	U	2.90 ± 0.04^ab	2.93 ± 0.15^ab	3.15 ± 0.17^a	2.70 ± 0.04^b	0.66	7.31^*	2.28
TN (mg·kg^-1)	W	2.64 ± 0.15^a	2.63 ± 0.11^a	2.66 ± 0.08^a*	2.79 ± 0.08^a
TC (mg·kg^-1)	U	29.86 ± 0.37^a	31.59 ± 0.91^a	32.38 ± 1.35^a	30.06 ± 0.63^a	1.81	12.54^**	1.10
TC (mg·kg^-1)	W	28.37 ± 1.04^a	28.55 ± 0.36^a*	29.51 ± 0.22^a	29.48 ± 0.76^a
NH₄⁺-N (mg·kg^-1)	U	11.29 ± 1.17^a	12.70 ± 1.08^a	9.93 ± 0.38^a	11.48 ± 1.07^a	3.09	0.02	2.91
NH₄⁺-N (mg·kg^-1)	W	11.03 ± 0.38^b	9.93 ± 0.51^b	8.93 ± 0.21^b	15.06 ± 2.36^a
NO₃^--N (mg·kg^-1)	U	5.76 ± 0.17^b	8.07 ± 0.38^a	7.82 ± 0.31^a	6.35 ± 0.26^b	108.88^***	945.64^***	53.29^***
NO₃^--N (mg·kg^-1)	W	13.39 ± 0.27^b*	15.06 ± 0.07^a*	13.69 ± 0.07^b*	8.10 ± 0.32^c*
TC/TN	U	10.31 ± 0.19^b	10.80 ± 0.38^ab	10.29 ± 0.12^b	11.15 ± 0.18^a	0.50	0.87	2.42
TC/TN	W	10.77 ± 0.30^a	10.90 ± 0.38^a	11.11 ± 0.34^a	10.57 ± 0.03^a

Table 2 Pearson correlation coefficients between microbial community phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) and environmental factors

	pH	SM (%)	TN	TC	NH₄⁺-N	NO₃^--N	TC/TN
Total	0.05	0.33	0.25	0.47^*	-0.22	0.01	0.16
B	0.01	0.36	0.30	0.50^*	-0.23	-0.02	0.12
GP	0.04	0.44^*	0.36	0.53^**	-0.27	-0.05	0.04
GN	0.00	0.32	0.27	0.49^*	-0.21	-0.01	0.15
F	0.35	0.08	-0.04	0.21	-0.07	0.18	0.37
AC	0.21	0.03	0.12	0.31	-0.08	0.16	0.20
F/B	0.64^***	-0.38	-0.46^*	-0.31	0.21	0.41^*	0.45^*
GP/GN	0.12	0.13	0.01	-0.23	-0.07	-0.10	-0.29

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