Successions of Bacterial and Fungal Communities in Biological Soil Crust under Sand-Fixation Plantation in Horqin Sandy Land, Northeast China

• Published in: Forests 2024-09, Vol.15 (9), p.1631
• Main Authors: Cao, Chengyou, Zhang, Ying, Cui, Zhenbo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: afforestation in sandy land; Arid zones; Bacteria; Biodiversity; Crusts; Cyanobacteria; Desertification; desertification control; Dunes; Ecosystem degradation; Ecosystems; Enzymatic activity; Fixation; Fungi; Gene sequencing; Grasslands; Investigations; Lichens; Methods; Microbial activity; microbial community succession; Microbiomes; Microorganisms; Next-generation sequencing; Nitrate reductase; Nutrient availability; Nutrients; Oxidases; Plantations; Polyphenol oxidase; Reductases; revegetation; rRNA 16S; Sand; Sand dunes; Sandy soils; Semi arid areas; Semiarid lands; Soil conservation; Soil fertility; Soil investigations; Soil microorganisms; Soil moisture; Soil nutrients; Soil properties; Soil structure; Topsoil; Wind
• ISSN: 1999-4907; 1999-4907
• DOI: 10.3390/f15091631

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) serve important functions in conserving biodiversity and ecological service in arid and semi-arid regions. Afforestation on shifting sand dunes can induce the formation of BSC on topsoil, which can accelerate the restoration of a degraded ecosystem. However, the studies on microbial community succession along BSC development under sand-fixation plantations in desertification areas are limited. This paper investigated the soil properties, enzymatic activities, and bacterial and fungal community structures across an age sequence (0-, 10-, 22-, and 37-year-old) of BSCs under Caragana microphylla sand-fixation plantations in Horqin Sandy Land, Northeast China. The dynamics in the diversities and structures of soil bacterial and fungal communities were detected via the high-throughput sequencing of the 16S and ITS rRNA genes, respectively. The soil nutrients and enzymatic activities all linearly increased with the development of BSC; furthermore, soil enzymatic activity was more sensitive to BSC development than soil nutrients. The diversities of the bacterial and fungal communities gradually increased along BSC development. There was a significant difference in the structure of the bacterial/fungal communities of the moving sand dune and BSC sites, and similar microbial compositions among different BSC sites were found. The successions of microbial communities in the BSC were characterized as a sequential process consisting of an initial phase of the faster recoveries of dominant taxa, a subsequent slower development phase, and a final stable phase. The quantitative response to BSC development varied with the dominant taxa. The secondary successions of the microbial communities of the BSC were affected by soil factors, and soil moisture, available nutrients, nitrate reductase, and polyphenol oxidase were the main influencing factors.