Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6541524 | Forest Ecology and Management | 2018 | 8 Pages |
Abstract
Afforestation with single and mixed tree species on cropland alters soil properties and the composition and diversity of soil bacterial community. We investigated changes in soil properties and the soil bacterial community composition in the topsoil (0-20â¯cm) following afforestation on cropland on the Loess Plateau. Forests of six types ranging from 23 to 25â¯years in age were chosen in this study: Robinia pseudoacacia (RP), Platycladus orientalis (PO), Pinus tabuliformis (PT), Robinia pseudoacaciaâ¯+â¯Platycladus orientalis (RPPO), Robinia pseudoacaciaâ¯+â¯Pinus tabuliformis (RPPT), and Platycladus orientalisâ¯+â¯Pinus tabuliformis (POPT). Afforestation with different tree species altered the soil nutrient contents, with total nitrogen (TN) and ammonium nitrogen (NH4+) contents increased by 18.28-87.10% and 13.97-141.34%, respectively, and available phosphorus (AP) content decreased by 56.09-82.13% compared to cropland sites. Cropland afforestation reduced the soil bacterial richness and core bacterial genera abundance (relative abundanceâ¯â¥â¯0.1%), and significantly altered the bacterial diversity. Soil properties explained 73.41% of the total variation in the core soil bacterial community composition at the genus level, and soil organic carbon (SOC), TN, nitrate nitrogen (NO3â), NH4+, AP, pH and the carbon:phosphorus (C:P) ratio were significantly correlated with first two RDA (redundancy analysis) axes. The results of hierarchical clustering indicated that the soil bacterial community composition in the RPPO, RPPT and POPT sites was largely affected by Platycladus, Pinus tabuliformis and Platycladus, respectively. Our observations suggest that soil bacterial community composition and diversity following afforestation were mainly affected by tree species, followed by soil parameters. The effect of afforestation on the soil bacterial diversity was larger than its effect on bacterial richness.
Keywords
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Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Authors
Jinliang Liu, Peng Dang, Yang Gao, Hailan Zhu, Huinan Zhu, Fei Zhao, Zhong Zhao,