Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis ›› 2021, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (12): 2348-2357.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-1524.2021.12.15

• Environmental Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Responses of soil nutrients and microbial community to altitude in typical Pinus yunnanensis forest at rocky desertification region

SUI Xiran1(), WANG Yan1,2,*(), LIU Yungen1,2, ZHANG Yajie1, WU Lifang1   

  1. 1. College of Ecology and Environment, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China
    2. Yunnan Key Laboratory of Ecological Environment Evolution and Pollution Control in Mountainous Rural Areas, Kunming 650224, China
  • Received:2020-09-09 Online:2021-12-25 Published:2022-01-10
  • Contact: WANG Yan

Abstract:

In the present study, typical Pinus yunnanensis forest at rocky desertification region in southwest China was selected as the study area, analysis of variance (ANOVA), redundancy analysis (RDA) and high-throughput sequencing methods were applied to explore the response of soil nutrients and bacterial community composition and diversity to different altitudes, which would be helpful for the rocky desertification control and ecosystem vegetation restoration in this area. It was shown that the contents of soil total carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus increased fist and decreased then with increasing altitude. The highest content of soil total potassium was at altitude of 1 900 m, yet the lowest was at 1 600 m.The highest content of soil available nitrogen and available phosphorus was both at altitude of 1 600 m, while the lowest was at 1 300 m and 1 900 m, respectively. The highest content of available potassium was at altitude of 1 900 m, yet the lowest was at 1 600 m.The indexes of Chao1, Shannon increased first and then decreased with the elevated altitude, while the Simpson index showed the opposite trend. The dominant phyla of microbial community were Proteus, Acidobacteria, Actinomycetes and Curvularia, which accounted for 33.37%, 24.40%, 19.82%, 12.06%, respectively.The relative abundance of Proteus and Acidobacteria increased first and then decreased with the elevated altitude, while Curvularia showed the opposite trend. The highest relative abundance of Actinomycetes was found at altitude of 1 600 m, yet there was no significant difference within other altitudes. At class level, the dominant microbial community were Alphaproteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, which accounted for 18.46%, 12.72%, 7.88%, 5.13%, respectively. The relative abundance of Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria increased first and then decreased, while Acidobacteria exhibited the opposite.There was no significant difference in the relative abundance of Deltaproteobacteria within different altitudes. Soil pH, and contents of total carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, available nitrogen and available phosphorus were significantly (P<0.05) correlated with the bacterial diversity, and were main driving factors of bacterial community composition.

Key words: altitude, soil nutrients, high-throughput sequencing, bacteria

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