Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2021, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (5): 552-561.DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2020.0293

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Short-term response of soil prokaryotic community structure to water level restoration in degraded peatland of the Zoigê Plateau

LUO Ming-Mo1,2, CHEN Yue1,2, YANG Gang3, HU Bin1, LI Wei1,2,*(), CHEN Huai4,*()   

  1. 1School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Yunnan University, Institute for Ecological Research and Pollution Control of Plateau Lakes, Kunming 650091, China
    2Yunnan Key Laboratory for Plateau Mountain Ecology and Restoration of Degraded Environments, Kunming 650091, China
    3School of Life Sciences and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, Sichuan 621010, China
    4Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
  • Received:2020-08-27 Accepted:2020-11-20 Online:2021-05-20 Published:2021-01-07
  • Contact: LI Wei,CHEN Huai
  • Supported by:
    the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31700411);the Yunnan Province Applied Basic Research Project(2018FD007)

Abstract:

Aims Degraded peatlands recovery is an important environmental issue of current concern. Exploring the response of Zoigê degraded peatlands prokaryotic microbial community structure to water level recovery could provide foundation for the ecological restoration.
Methods For exploring the response of prokaryotic microbial community structure to water level recovery in the short-term, we selected Zoigê degraded peatland and designed two water level recovery (10 and 30 cm) with a control group (-10 cm) in situ test from year 2014 to 2015. We collected 0-15 cm soil samples and determined soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) content and soil pH, we also analyzed microbial community structure by using 16S rRNA high throughput sequencing technique.
Important findings The results showed that water level recovery could improve the content of SOC, TN, TP and its stoichiometric ratio to a certain extent, however, there was no significant difference with the control group. The dominant microorganisms at the phylum level were Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia. Short-term water level recovery (10 and 30 cm) had no significant effect on the alpha diversity of prokaryotic microbial, but significantly reduced the relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia and Spartobacteria, while having an increase in methanogenic bacteria. Soil pH and water level were negatively correlated with the abundance of Verrucomicrobia and Spartobacteria. Prokaryotic microbial community structure is sensitive to soil C:P, N:P and SOC content. In a word, short-term water recovery hasn’t changed prokaryotic microbial alpha diversity, but increased the methanogenic bacteria, which will probably stimulate methane production pathways. Soil C:P, N:P and SOC content control the structure variation of prokaryotic microbial community in degraded peatlands during short-term water level restoration process. Our findings enrich the understanding of the structure of prokaryotic microbial community in response to short-term water level.

Key words: peatland, water level, environmental factor, soil prokaryotic microbial