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. 2021 Feb 23;16(2):e0246263.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246263. eCollection 2021.

Nutrient availability is a dominant predictor of soil bacterial and fungal community composition after nitrogen addition in subtropical acidic forests

Juyan Cui  1   2   3 , Xiaochun Yuan  1   2   4 , Qiufang Zhang  1   2 , Jiacong Zhou  1   2 , Kaimiao Lin  4 , Jianguo Xu  5 , Yaozhong Zeng  1   2 , Yue Wu  1   2 , Lei Cheng  1   2 , Quanxin Zeng  1   2 , Kongcan Mei  1   2 , Yuehmin Chen  1   2   6
Affiliations

Nutrient availability is a dominant predictor of soil bacterial and fungal community composition after nitrogen addition in subtropical acidic forests

Juyan Cui et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Nutrient addition to forest ecosystems significantly influences belowground microbial diversity, community structure, and ecosystem functioning. Nitrogen (N) addition in forests is common in China, especially in the southeast region. However, the influence of N addition on belowground soil microbial community diversity in subtropical forests remains unclear. In May 2018, we randomly selected 12 experimental plots in a Pinus taiwanensis forest within the Daiyun Mountain Nature Reserve, Fujian Province, China, and subjected them to N addition treatments for one year. We investigated the responses of the soil microbial communities and identified the major elements that influenced microbial community composition in the experimental plots. The present study included three N treatments, i.e., the control (CT), low N addition (LN, 40 kg N ha-1 yr-1), and high N addition (HN, 80 kg N ha-1 yr-1), and two depths, 0-10 cm (topsoil) and 10-20 cm (subsoil), which were all sampled in the growing season (May) of 2019. Soil microbial diversity and community composition in the topsoil and subsoil were investigated using high-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rDNA genes and fungal internal transcribed spacer sequences. According to our results, 1) soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) significantly decreased after HN addition, and available nitrogen (AN) significantly declined after LN addition, 2) bacterial α-diversity in the subsoil significantly decreased with HN addition, which was affected significantly by the interaction between N addition and soil layer, and 3) soil DOC, rather than pH, was the dominant environmental factor influencing soil bacterial community composition, while AN and MBN were the best predictors of soil fungal community structure dynamics. Moreover, N addition influence both diversity and community composition of soil bacteria more than those of fungi in the subtropical forests. The results of the present study provide further evidence to support shifts in soil microbial community structure in acidic subtropical forests in response to increasing N deposition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Study site location.
(A) Map of China. (B) Map of Fujian Province. (C) Map of Dehua county. The blue pentagram is the sampling area.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Pearson’s correlation coefficients between soil properties and soil bacterial (A) and fungal (B) α-diversity.
α-diversity indices include Chao1, good coverage, observed species, PD whole tree, Shannon, and Simpson indices; SMC represents soil moisture content, CEC represents cation exchange capacity, SOC represents soil organic carbon, TN represents total nitrogen, TP represents total phosphorus, CN ratio represents the carbon:nitrogen ratio, and DOC represents dissolved organic carbon.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Relative abundance of dominant phyla of bacteria and fungi in the topsoil and subsoil under different N addition treatments.
Control treatment in topsoil is represented by CT_A, low nitrogen addition in topsoil is represented by LN_A, high nitrogen addition in topsoil is represented by HN_A; control treatment in subsoil is represented by CT_B, low nitrogen addition in subsoil is represented by LN_B, and high nitrogen addition in subsoil is represented by HN_B.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Redundancy discriminate analysis (RDA) plots illustrating the relationships between the dominant bacterial (A) and fungal (B) phyla and soil physicochemical properties and microbial biomass.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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