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. 2021 Sep 23:9:e12098.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.12098. eCollection 2021.

Near-natural transformation of Pinus tabuliformis better improve soil nutrients and soil microbial community

You Yin  1   2 , Qiuli Li  1 , Haitao Du  1
Affiliations

Near-natural transformation of Pinus tabuliformis better improve soil nutrients and soil microbial community

You Yin et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Pinus tabulaeformis plantations have been established around northern China to restore degraded land and provide timber or fuelwood. In recent years, widely distributed monoculture P. tabulaeformis forests have been transformed into mixed forests due to various ecological problems. However, the current research on the influence of near-natural transformation of P. tabulaeformis on soil microbial diversity and community composition remains limited. Therefore, we examined the effect of forest conversion from monoculture Pinus tabuliformis (PT) to P. tabuliformis-Armeniaca vulgaris (PTAU), P. tabuliformis - Robinia pseudoacacia (PTRP), P. tabuliformis - Vitex negundo L. var. heterophylla (PTVN) forests on soil microbial community diversity and composition. The results indicated that compared to PT, PTAU, PTVN, and PTRP could enhance the soil pH, TC, TN, AN, and AK in different degrees, the most obvious in PTAU. Near-natural transformation of P. tabuliformis could improve soil bacterial Pielou_e index, and Simpson index, as well as soil fungal Chao1 index. Proteobacteria and Ascomycota were the dominant soil microbial community at the phylum level. What's more, both soil bacterial and fungal community among PT, PTAU, PTRP and PTVN showed clear different, and PTAU obviously altered the soil microbial community structure. Proteobacteria was the predominant group in PT, while, Gemmatimonadetes enriched in PTVN. Ascomycota was the predominant group in PTAU, while, Basidiomycota was the predominant group in PTRP. Near-natural transformation of P. tabuliformis could change soil microbial community via altering soil characteristics. In brief, our research results revealed the influence of tree composition and soil nutrient availability on soil microbial diversity and composition, and provided management guidance for introduction soil microbial community in forest protection and management.

Keywords: Near-natural transformation; Pinus tabuliformis; Soil characteroistics; Soil microbial community.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The unique and shared OTUs of soil bacteria (A) and fungi (B).
PT, Pinus tabuliformis; PTAU, Pinus tabuliformis-Armeniaca vulgaris mixed forest; PTRP, Pinus tabuliformis-Robinia pseudoacacia mixed forest; PTVN, Pinus tabuliformis-Vitex negundo L. var. heterophylla mixed forest.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Soil bacterial (A) and fungal (B) community ranking at the top ten at the phylum level with the relative abundance more than 1%.
PT, Pinus tabuliformis; PTAU, Pinus tabuliformis-Armeniaca vulgaris mixed forest; PTRP, Pinus tabuliformis-Robinia pseudoacacia mixed forest; PTVN, Pinus tabuliformis-Vitex negundo L. var. heterophylla mixed forest.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Lefse of soil bacterial community (A) and fungal community (B) under different vegetation types.
PT, Pinus tabuliformis; PTAU, Pinus tabuliformis-Armeniaca vulgaris mixed forest; PTRP, Pinus tabuliformis-Robinia pseudoacacia mixed forest; PTVN, Pinus tabuliformis-Vitex negundo L. var. heterophylla mixed forest.
Figure 4
Figure 4. The NMDS of soil bacterial (A) and fungal (B) community structure based on Bray-cruits.
PT, Pinus tabuliformis; PTAU, Pinus tabuliformis-Armeniaca vulgaris mixed forest; PTRP, Pinus tabuliformis-Robinia pseudoacacia mixed forest; PTVN, Pinus tabuliformis-Vitex negundo L. var. heterophylla mixed forest.
Figure 5
Figure 5. The RDA of soil characteristics on soil bacterial community at the phylum (A) and genus (B) level, and fungal community at the phylum (C) and genus (D) level.
PT, Pinus tabuliformis; PTAU, Pinus tabuliformis-Armeniaca vulgaris mixed forest; PTRP, Pinus tabuliformis-Robinia pseudoacacia mixed forest; PTVN, Pinus tabuliformis-Vitex negundo L. var. heterophylla mixed forest. TC, total carbon; TN, total nitrogen; TP, total phosphorus; AN, available nitrogen; AP, available phosphorus; AK, available potassium.
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