Assessing the effect of air-drying and storage on microbial biomass and community structure in paddy soils

To understand the effect of air-drying pre-treatment, refrigeration, and freezing storages on microbial biomass and community structure in paddy soils, we measured total phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) and PLFA profile after five treatments, including flooded (F), flooded-freezing (FF), flooded-air-drying (FAD), flooded-air-drying-freezing (FADF), and flooded-air-drying-refrigeration (FADR). FF and FADF treatments were followed by freeze-drying before analyzing the total PLFA and PLFA profile. The results showed that FF and FADF treatments increased the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids, but decreased that of branched chain saturated fatty acids. FAD treatment increased the concentrations of bacterial, aerobic bacterial, stress, Type I methanotrophs, and Gram-negative bacterial biomarkers, while it decreased the concentration of hydroxy fatty acid group and the ratios of cyclopropyl saturated fatty acids to their monoenoic precursors. FADR significantly decreased the concentration of total PLFA and all PLFA groups except for the mono-unsaturated fatty acid group. Statistical analysis with correspondence analysis showed that air-drying and storage changed the microbial community structure, but the effect of air-drying on soil microbial community structure was more pronounced than that of freezing. These results indicated that deep freezing followed by freeze-drying may be the most recommendable procedure before soil biochemical analysis in flooded paddy soils.