Changes in the Soil Bacterial Communities in a Cedar Plantation Invaded by Moso Bamboo

Moso bamboo is fast-growing and negatively allelopathic to neighboring plants. However, there is little information on the effects of its establishment and expansion to adjacent forest soil communities. To better understand the impacts of bamboo invasion on soil communities, the phylogenetic structure and diversity of the soil bacterial communities in moso bamboo forest, adjacent Japanese cedar plantation, and bamboo-invaded transition zone were examined using a combination of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries and bar-coded pyrosequencing techniques. Based on the number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs), Shannon diversity index, Chao1 estimator, and rarefaction analysis of both techniques, the bamboo soil bacterial community was the most diverse, followed by the transition zone, with the cedar plantation possessing the lowest diversity. The results from both techniques revealed that the Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria predominated in the three communities, though the relative abundance was different. The 250 most abundant OTUs represented about 70 % of the total sequences found by pyrosequencing. Most of these OTUs were found in all three soil communities, demonstrating the overall similarity among the bacterial communities. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis showed further that the bamboo and transition soil communities were more similar with each other than the cedar soils. These results suggest that bamboo invasion to the adjacent cedar plantation gradually increased the bacterial diversity and changed the soil community. In addition, while the 10 most abundant OTUs were distributed worldwide, related sequences were not abundant in soils from outside the forest studied here. This result may be an indication of the uniqueness of this region.     

Bacterial community of very wet and acidic subalpine forest and fire-induced grassland soils

The subalpine forest and grassland ecosystems at Tatajia in Yushan National Park, Taiwan, at an elevation of 2,700 m, mean annual precipitation of 4,100 mm, mean annual temperature of 9.5°C, and soil pH near 3.5, represent land types whose bacterial communities have not been previously characterized. To this end, small subunit (SSU) rRNA libraries were prepared from environmental DNA, and 319 clones were sequenced and characterized. Despite differences in vegetation, Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the most abundant phyla in soil communities from the forest and grassland. Although not significantly different, on the basis of Chao1, Shannon and other indices and rarefaction analyses, the diversity of the bacterial community of grassland appeared higher than that of the forest. The composition of the most abundant operational taxonomic units (OTUs) also differed between the grassland and forest communities. Because the grassland was formed by fire 30 years ago from forest, these results indicated a different bacterial community could form within that time. Moreover, most of the OTUs abundant in Tatajia soils had been previously detected in other studies, but in lower numbers. Therefore, the bacterial communities in Tatajia differed in relative abundance but not in types of bacteria present. However, one acidobacterial OTU abundant in Tatajia had previously been found to be abundant in soils from around the world. Thus, this OTU may represent a particularly abundant and cosmopolitan bacterial phylotype.     

Pyrosequencing Reveals Changes in Soil Bacterial Communities after Conversion of Yungas Forests to Agriculture

The Southern Andean Yungas in Northwest Argentina constitute one of the main biodiversity hotspots in the world. Considerable changes in land use have taken place in this ecoregion, predominantly related to forest conversion to croplands, inducing losses in above-ground biodiversity and with potential impact on soil microbial communities. In this study, we used high-throughput pyrosequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene to assess whether land-use change and time under agriculture affect the composition and diversity of soil bacterial communities. We selected two areas dedicated to sugarcane and soybean production, comprising both short- and long-term agricultural sites, and used the adjacent native forest soils as a reference. Land-use change altered the composition of bacterial communities, with differences between productive areas despite the similarities between both forests. At the phylum level, only Verrucomicrobia and Firmicutes changed in abundance after deforestation for sugarcane and soybean cropping, respectively. In cultivated soils, Verrucomicrobia decreased sharply (~80%), while Firmicutes were more abundant. Despite the fact that local diversity was increased in sugarcane systems and was not altered by soybean cropping, phylogenetic beta diversity declined along both chronosequences, evidencing a homogenization of soil bacterial communities over time. In spite of the detected alteration in composition and diversity, we found a core microbiome resistant to the disturbances caused by the conversion of forests to cultivated lands and few or none exclusive OTUs for each land-use type. The overall changes in the relative abundance of copiotrophic and oligotrophic taxa may have an impact in soil ecosystem functionality. However, communities with many taxa in common may also share many functional attributes, allowing to maintain at least some soil ecosystem services after forest conversion to croplands.     

Distinct bacterial communities across a gradient of vegetation from a preserved Brazilian Cerrado

The Cerrado biome in the Sete Cidades National Park, an Ecological Reserve in Northeastern Brazil, has conserved its native biodiversity and presents a variety of plants found in other savannas in Brazil. Despite this finding the soil microbial diversity and community structure are poorly understood. Therefore, we described soil bacterial diversity and distribution along a savanna vegetation gradient taking into account the prevailing environmental factors. The bacterial composition was retrieved by sequencing a fragment of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. The bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were assigned to 37 different phyla, 96 classes, and 83 genera. At the phylum level, a core comprised by Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia and Planctomycetes, was detected in all areas of Cerrado. ‘Cerrado stricto sensu’ and ‘Cerradao’ share more similarities between edaphic properties and vegetation and also present more similar bacterial communities, while ‘Floresta decidual’ and ‘Campo graminoide’ show the largest environmental differences and also more distinct bacterial communities. Proteobacteria (26%), Acidobacteria (21%) and Actinobacteria (21%) were the most abundant phyla within the four areas. All the samples present similar bacteria richness (alpha diversity) and the observed differences among them (beta diversity) were more related to the abundance of specific taxon OTUs compared to their presence or absence. Total organic C, N and P are the main abiotic factors structuring the bacterial communities. In summary, our findings show the bacterial community structure was clearly different across the Cerrado gradient, but that these environments share a bacterial phylum-core comprising Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobia and Planctomycetes with other Brazilian savannas.     

Change in Bacterial Community Structure in Response to Disturbance of Natural Hardwood and Secondary Coniferous Forest Soils in Central Taiwan

Forest management often results in changes in the soil and its microbial communities. In the present study, differences in the soil bacterial community caused by forest management practices were characterized using small subunit (SSU) ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene clone libraries. The communities were from a native hardwood forest (HWD) and two adjacent conifer plantations in a low-elevation montane, subtropical experimental forest at the Lienhuachi Experimental Forest (LHCEF) in central Taiwan. At this locality, the elevation ranges from 600 to 950 m, the mean annual precipitation is 2,200 mm, the mean annual temperature is 20.8°C, and the soil pH is 4. The conifer forests included a Cunninghamia konishii Hay (CNH) plantation of 40 years and an old growth Calocedrus formosana (Florin) Florin (CLC) forest of 80 years. A total of 476 clones were sequenced and assigned into 12 phylogenetic groups. Proteobacteria-affiliated clones (53%) predominated in the library from HWD soils. In contrast, Acidobacteria was the most abundant phylum and comprised 39% and 57% in the CLC and CNH libraries, respectively. Similarly, the most abundant OTUs in HWD soils were greatly reduced or absent in the CLC and CNH soils. Based on several diversity indices, the numbers of abundant OTUs and singletons, and rarefaction curves, the diversity of the HWD community (0.95 in evenness and Shannon diversity indices) was somewhat less than that in the CNH soils (0.97 in evenness and Shannon diversity indices). The diversity of the community in CLC soils was intermediate. The differences in diversity among the three communities may also reflect changes in abundances of a few OTUs. The CNH forest soil community may be still in a successional phase that is only partially stabilized after 40 years. Analysis of molecular variance also revealed that the bacterial community composition of HWD soils was significantly different from CLC and CNH soils (p = 0.001). These results suggest that the disturbance of forest conversion and tree species composition are important factors influencing the soil bacterial community among three forest ecosystems in the same climate.     

云南松林次生演替阶段土壤细菌群落的变化

土壤细菌多样性是维持森林生态系统功能的关键因子,森林演替是影响其动态变化的重要因素。研究云南松林不同演替阶段土壤细菌群落结构及其多样性的变化规律,有助于深入理解森林生态系统恢复过程的驱动机制。本研究以云南省永仁县皆伐后形成的针叶林、针阔混交林和常绿阔叶林为对象,基于Illumina Hiseq高通量测序技术,分析森林演替过程中土壤细菌群落组成、结构、多样性及其影响因子的变化。结果表明: 土壤细菌的种群分类单元、Ace指数、Chao1指数和Shannon指数均随着演替进行呈减少趋势,演替早期阶段土壤的细菌总数、菌群丰富度及复杂程度最高。不同演替阶段细菌群落结构存在显著差异,其中,针阔混交林的差异最大,变形菌门和酸杆菌门为各演替序列共有的优势类群,放线菌门、绿弯菌门和Patescibacteria是演替早期的优势类群,且随着演替进行呈现减少趋势;变形菌门和WPS-2相对多度随演替进行呈增加趋势。土壤pH和乔木层物种丰富度是驱动次生演替过程中土壤细菌群落组成变化的关键因子。随着演替的进行,土壤细菌多样性减少,群落组成差异加大。     

Fungal Community Shifts in Structure and Function across a Boreal Forest Fire Chronosequence

Forest fires are a common natural disturbance in forested ecosystems and have a large impact on the microbial communities in forest soils. The response of soil fungal communities to forest fire is poorly documented. Here, we investigated fungal community structure and function across a 152-year boreal forest fire chronosequence using high-throughput sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region and a functional gene array (GeoChip). Our results demonstrate that the boreal forest soil fungal community was most diverse soon after a fire disturbance and declined over time. The differences in the fungal communities were explained by changes in the abundance of basidiomycetes and ascomycetes. Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi contributed to the increase in basidiomycete abundance over time, with the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) representing the genera Cortinarius and Piloderma dominating in abundance. Hierarchical cluster analysis by using gene signal intensity revealed that the sites with different fire histories formed separate clusters, suggesting differences in the potential to maintain essential biogeochemical soil processes. The site with the greatest biological diversity had also the most diverse genes. The genes involved in organic matter degradation in the mature forest, in which ECM fungi were the most abundant, were as common in the youngest site, in which saprotrophic fungi had a relatively higher abundance. This study provides insight into the impact of fire disturbance on soil fungal community dynamics.     

两种盐生植物根际土壤细菌多样性和群落结构

应用高通量测序技术对西北干旱区两种盐生植物黑果枸杞和里海盐爪爪根际土壤细菌的多样性和群落结构进行研究,旨在揭示两种耐盐植物根际土壤细菌之间以及根际与非根际细菌群落结构间的差异,为深入研究盐生植物根际土壤微生物与耐盐性之间的关系提供理论基础。结果表明:黑果枸杞、里海盐爪爪根际细菌多样性丰度高于非根际土,黑果枸杞根际土壤细菌多样性丰度高于里海盐爪爪。根际和非根际土壤细菌群落的组成和丰度存在差异,从黑果枸杞和里海盐爪爪根际土壤中分别检测出细菌21门289属和22门304属,而从非根际土壤中分别检测出28门285属和24门336属;在两种盐生植物根际土壤中,变形菌门和厚壁菌门均为优势门;拟杆菌门、放线菌门、蓝细菌门及浮霉菌门在根际土壤中的丰度显著高于非根际土壤,而厚壁菌门在根际土壤中的丰度低于非根际土壤。两种植物根际土壤中的细菌优势门和优势属的数量均高于非根际土壤,在黑果枸杞和里海盐爪爪的根际土壤中的细菌优势属分别有10个和9个,而二者非根际土壤中的细菌优势属各有4个,其中假单胞菌属是根际和非根际土壤中的共有优势属。黑果枸杞和里海盐爪爪根系细菌群落组成和丰度存在差异,只有假单胞菌属和盐单胞菌属是两种植物根际土壤中的共有优势属。Unifrac分析和聚类分析表明,两种盐生植物根际土壤细菌之间的相似性大于根际和非根际细菌群落间的相似性。细菌多样性与土壤有机碳、有机质、总氮正相关,与pH、电导率负相关,电导率和pH,有机碳和总氮分别是非根际土,根际土壤细菌群落物种组成的主要影响因素。     

高通量测序分析大兴安岭典型森林土壤细菌和真菌群落特征

【背景】大兴安岭地区是我国对气候变化响应最敏感的区域,而土壤微生物在维持寒区森林生态系统结构和功能中发挥重要作用。【目的】探究大兴安岭不同森林类型土壤微生物群落结构及与环境因子的关系。【方法】采用Illumina MiSeq高通量测序技术,分析3种典型森林(白桦林、落叶松林和樟子松林)土壤细菌和真菌群落组成和多样性。【结果】3种林型中共获得2 786个细菌操作分类单元(Operational Taxonomic Unit,OTU),隶属于38门531属,其中优势菌门为变形菌门(Proteobacteria, 31.45%-40.32%)、酸杆菌门(Acidobacteria, 14.24%-40.16%)和放线菌门(Actinobacteria,7.13%-22.15%);1803个真菌OTU隶属于8门263属,其中优势菌门为担子菌门(Basidiomycota,40.43%-62.75%)和子囊菌门(Ascomycota,35.81%-53.68%)。主坐标分析表明,3种林型中细菌和真菌群落组间差异远大于组内差异。Mantel检验结果显示:细菌群落结构与pH、总氮(Total Nitrogen,TN)、总磷(Total Phosphorus,TP)和含水量(Soil Water Content,SWC)具有显著相关性(P0.05),其中pH的相关性系数最大;真菌群落结构与SWC、TN和TP具有显著相关性(P0.05),其中TN的相关性系数最大。冗余分析结果发现,TP与变形菌门、担子菌门相对丰度呈显著正相关,TN和SWC与酸杆菌门、子囊菌门呈显著正相关,pH与放线菌门呈显著正相关(P0.05)。【结论】不同林型间土壤微生物群落结构存在显著差异,明晰其分布规律及主要环境驱动因子,是把握寒区森林生态系统过程的关键。     

五大连池火山土壤细菌多样性及其群落结构

火山熔岩生境孕育了独特的土壤微生物群落。为了解火山生态系统土壤细菌群落多样性和群落结构及其关键影响因子,选择五大连池新、老期火山为研究样点,非火山为对照,基于高通量测序方法,分析不同采样点土壤细菌群落结构和多样性,结合土壤理化指标,进一步分析影响火山生态系统土壤细菌群落多样性的环境因子。结果表明：细菌操作分类单元（OTUs）、Ace指数、Chao1指数和Simpson指数变化趋势一致,表现为非火山 > 新期火山 > 老期火山。三个样点土壤的共有OUTs数量为713个,各自特有的OTUs数量不尽相同。三个样点土壤中检测到共有细菌16个类群,其中变形菌门、酸杆菌门、放线菌门和绿弯菌门为优势菌群,老期火山土壤中酸杆菌门、疣微菌门、Rokubacteria相对丰度最大,而Patescibacteria相对丰度最小。三个样点的土壤细菌群落具有明显的空间关系,相似性差异较大,但不符合随地理距离的增加而降低的模型。土壤理化性质测定结果标明：老期火山土壤pH、有机质、全氮、全磷、铵态氮和硝态氮显著高于新期火山和非火山,新期火山土壤含水量和速效磷显著低于老期火山和非火山。喷发时间和火成岩基质等特性会导致不同火山土壤理化性质的差异,进而影响土壤细菌多样性和群落结构。Pearson相关性分析表明：土壤pH显著影响细菌的多样性指数。冗余分析（RDA）结果表明：土壤氮含量、pH和有机质是影响火山森林生态系统土壤细菌群落结构的主要因子。     

The Impact of Selective-Logging and Forest Clearance for Oil Palm on Fungal Communities in Borneo

Tropical forests are being rapidly altered by logging, and cleared for agriculture. Understanding the effects of these land use changes on soil fungi, which play vital roles in the soil ecosystem functioning and services, is a major conservation frontier. Using 454-pyrosequencing of the ITS1 region of extracted soil DNA, we compared communities of soil fungi between unlogged, once-logged, and twice-logged rainforest, and areas cleared for oil palm, in Sabah, Malaysia. Overall fungal community composition differed significantly between forest and oil palm plantation. The OTU richness and Chao 1 were higher in forest, compared to oil palm plantation. As a proportion of total reads, Basidiomycota were more abundant in forest soil, compared to oil palm plantation soil. The turnover of fungal OTUs across space, true β-diversity, was also higher in forest than oil palm plantation. Ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungal abundance was significantly different between land uses, with highest relative abundance (out of total fungal reads) observed in unlogged forest soil, lower abundance in logged forest, and lowest in oil palm. In their entirety, these results indicate a pervasive effect of conversion to oil palm on fungal community structure. Such wholesale changes in fungal communities might impact the long-term sustainability of oil palm agriculture. Logging also has more subtle long term effects, on relative abundance of EcM fungi, which might affect tree recruitment and nutrient cycling. However, in general the logged forest retains most of the diversity and community composition of unlogged forest.     

Cellulose utilization in forest litter and soil: identification of bacterial and fungal decomposers

Organic matter decomposition in the globally widespread coniferous forests has an important role in the carbon cycle, and cellulose decomposition is especially important in this respect because cellulose is the most abundant polysaccharide in plant litter. Cellulose decomposition was 10 times faster in the fungi-dominated litter of Picea abies forest than in the bacteria-dominated soil. In the soil, the added (13)C-labelled cellulose was the main source of microbial respiration and was preferentially accumulated in the fungal biomass and cellulose induced fungal proliferation. In contrast, in the litter, bacterial biomass showed higher labelling after (13)C-cellulose addition and bacterial biomass increased. While 80% of the total community was represented by 104-106 bacterial and 33-59 fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs), 80% of the cellulolytic communities of bacteria and fungi were only composed of 8-18 highly abundant OTUs. Both the total and (13)C-labelled communities differed substantially between the litter and soil. Cellulolytic bacteria in the acidic topsoil included Betaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Acidobacteria, whereas these typically found in neutral soils were absent. Most fungal cellulose decomposers belonged to Ascomycota; cellulolytic Basidiomycota were mainly represented by the yeasts Trichosporon and Cryptococcus. Several bacteria and fungi demonstrated here to derive their carbon from cellulose were previously not recognized as cellulolytic.     

东祁连山退化高寒草地土壤细菌群落与土壤环境因子间的相互关系

为探究东祁连山不同退化高寒草地细菌群落分布特征与土壤环境因子间的相互关系,采用高通量测序技术对轻度、中度和重度退化草地的土壤细菌群落结构变化及其多样性进行分析,运用CANOCO 4.5软件对土壤细菌群落与土壤环境因子间关系进行冗余分析(RDA).结果表明:不同退化高寒草地土壤理化性质间均差异显著,高通量测序共得到257125条有效序列,180826条优质序列,4790个OTUs.细菌群落Chao1指数依次为轻度>中度>重度;Shannon指数依次为轻度>重度>中度.系统发育分析表明,各样地土壤细菌类群分属于33个门,其中放线菌门、变形菌门和厚壁菌门是3种不同退化草地土壤中的优势类群.对不同退化草地土壤细菌各门所占比例分析发现,放线菌门、酸杆菌门和变形菌门随着退化程度加剧先减少后增加,厚壁菌门反之.RDA分析结果显示,细菌优势类群与蔗糖酶、纤维素酶和磷酸酶呈极显著相关,与pH、电导率、速效氮、速效钾呈显著相关.说明东祁连山不同退化高寒草地土壤细菌群落间差异明显,土壤环境因子是影响土壤细菌群落分布的重要因素.     

基于16S rDNA测序对茶园土壤细菌群落多样性的研究

土壤细菌群落组成和多样性,对茶园土壤生态系统健康和肥力可持续性具有的重要理论意义。利用Illumina高通量测序技术测定分析16S rDNA,研究云南景迈山、布朗山和南糯山的现代茶园、古茶园(林)和森林土壤的细菌群落结构与多样性。结果表明:古茶园土壤细菌的丰度和多样性高于现代茶园及森林;研究土壤样本细菌共分属47个菌门、89个目,其中变形菌门、酸杆菌门、放线菌门、厚壁菌门与拟杆菌门是优势类群,它们在森林、现代茶园和古茶园土壤中的相对丰度累计分别达91.86%、82.48%和77.08%;伯克霍尔德氏菌目、根瘤菌目是优势菌群,其平均丰度分别达13.91%和8.17%,黄单胞菌目、红螺菌目、芽孢杆菌目、放线菌目和拟杆菌目等12个目的丰度较高,达2%以上;PCA分析表明:森林、现代茶园和古茶园土壤的细菌群落结构差异明显,除景迈山外,主要优势细菌丰度依次为:古茶园现代茶园森林,古茶园土壤细菌多样性有增强趋势。     

Predicting spatial patterns of soil bacteria under current and future environmental conditions

Soil bacteria are largely missing from future biodiversity assessments hindering comprehensive forecasts of ecosystem changes. Soil bacterial communities are expected to be more strongly driven by pH and less by other edaphic and climatic factors. Thus, alkalinisation or acidification along with climate change may influence soil bacteria, with subsequent influences for example on nutrient cycling and vegetation. Future forecasts of soil bacteria are therefore needed. We applied species distribution modelling (SDM) to quantify the roles of environmental factors in governing spatial abundance distribution of soil bacterial OTUs and to predict how future changes in these factors may change bacterial communities in a temperate mountain area. Models indicated that factors related to soil (especially pH), climate and/or topography explain and predict part of the abundance distribution of most OTUs. This supports the expectations that microorganisms have specific environmental requirements (i.e., niches/envelopes) and that they should accordingly respond to environmental changes. Our predictions indicate a stronger role of pH over other predictors (e.g. climate) in governing distributions of bacteria, yet the predicted future changes in bacteria communities are smaller than their current variation across space. The extent of bacterial community change predictions varies as a function of elevation, but in general, deviations from neutral soil pH are expected to decrease abundances and diversity of bacteria. Our findings highlight the need to account for edaphic changes, along with climate changes, in future forecasts of soil bacteria.Subject terms: Microbial ecology, Metagenomics, Climate-change ecology     

Bacterial diversity and community structure in polygonal tundra soils from Samoylov Island, Lena Delta, Siberia

During the Arctic summer, bacteria are active above the permafrost in an environment with sharp temperature and oxygen gradients. The present study addressed the diversity and abundance of bacteria in soil layers near the surface and above the permafrost of the rim and center of a low-centered polygon in the Lena Delta, Siberia. 16S rRNA gene clone libraries revealed the presence of all major soil bacterial groups and of the candidate divisions OD1, OP5, and OP11, and indicated a small-scale heterogeneity of these polygonal tundra soils. The diversity at the top of the elevated polygon rim was significantly different from that of the bottom and from both water-saturated sites of the polygon's center. The overall species-level diversity was very high (Shannon index of 5.3) but varied within the sites and decreased towards the permafrost table, coinciding with decreasing dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and phosphate concentrations. According to the number of operational taxonomical units (OTUs) and cells visualized by fluorescence in-situ hybridization, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria were the dominant members of the bacterial community in all sites. Bacteroidetes contributed almost 50% to all Bacteria cells while sequences affiliated with Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi represented on average 23% of all OTUs. Our results provide evidence of the extremely diverse bacterial communities present in permafrost soils and of the influence of nutrient concentrations, oxygen, and DOC on diversity.     

Effect of Sugarcane Burning or Green Harvest Methods on the Brazilian Cerrado Soil Bacterial Community Structure

Background

The Brazilian Cerrado is one of the most important biodiversity reservoirs in the world. The sugarcane cultivation is expanding in this biome and necessitates the study of how it may impact the soil properties of the Cerrado. There is a lack of information especially about the impacts of different sugarcane management on the native bacterial communities of Cerrado soil. Therefore, our objective was to evaluate and compare the soil bacterial community structure of the Cerrado vegetation with two sugarcane systems.

Methods

We evaluated samples under native vegetation and the impact of the two most commonly used management strategies for sugarcane cultivation (burnt cane and green cane) on this diversity using pyrosequencing and quantitative PCR of the rrs gene (16S rRNA).

Results and Conclusions

Nineteen different phyla were identified, with Acidobacteria (≈35%), Proteobacteria (≈24%) and Actinobacteria (≈21%) being the most abundant. Many of the sequences were represented by few operational taxonomic units (OTUs, 3% of dissimilarity), which were found in all treatments. In contrast, there were very strong patterns of local selection, with many OTUs occurring only in one sample. Our results reveal a complex bacterial diversity, with a large fraction of microorganisms not yet described, reinforcing the importance of this biome. As possible sign of threat, the qPCR detected a reduction of the bacterial population in agricultural soils compared with native Cerrado soil communities. We conclude that sugarcane cultivation promoted significant structural changes in the soil bacterial community, with Firmicutes phylum and Acidobacteria classes being the groups most affected.     

Comparison of subsurface and surface soil bacterial communities in california grassland as assessed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes

The integrated biomass beneath the surface horizon in unsaturated soils is large and potentially important in nutrient and carbon cycling. Compared to surface soils, the ecology of these subsurface soils is weakly understood, particularly in terms of the composition of bacterial communities. We compared soil bacterial communities along two vertical transects by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms (TRFLPs) of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes to determine how surface and deep bacterial communities differ. DNA yield from soils collected from two Mediterranean grassland transects decreased exponentially from the surface to 4 m deep. Richness, as assessed by the number of peaks obtained after restriction with HhaI, MspI, RsaI, or HaeIII, and diversity, as assessed by the Shannon diversity indices, were lowest in the deepest sample. Lower diversity at depth is consistent with species-energy theory, which would predict relatively low diversity in the low organic matter horizons. Principal components analysis suggested that, in terms of HhaI and HaeIII generated TRFLPs, bacterial communities differed between depths. The most abundant amplicons cloned from the deepest sample contained sequences with restriction sites consistent with the largest peaks observed in TRFLPs generated from deep samples. These more abundant operational taxonomic units (OTUs) appeared related to Pseudomonas and Variovorax. Several OTUs were more related to each other than any previously described ribotypes. These OTUs showed similarity to bacteria from the divisions Actinobacteria and Firmicutes.     

Detection of the horizontal spatial structure of soil fungal communities in a natural forest

Soil microbes are considered to be a key determinant of the aboveground plant community. They are not distributed uniformly in the environment, and their activity, abundance, and ecosystem functioning could vary across localities, characterized by high β-diversity. Investigating factors that contribute to high β-diversity can help infer the possible mechanisms of microbial community assembly, and predict the scale and extent of impacts that soil microbes have on the plant community. Because soil systems consist of multiple horizons (i.e., vertical stratification) associated with different soil properties, complete understanding of high β-diversity requires consideration of both horizontal and vertical spatial structures of soil microbial communities. We studied the community composition of soil fungi from the O- and A-horizons in a Castanopsis-dominated temperate forest, and compared horizontal spatial autocorrelation in species composition between the two soil horizons (O- versus A-horizons). Pyrosequencing analysis yielded 67,129 sequencing reads, summed across all the 48 forest soil samples. Clustering analysis resulted in 597 molecular operational taxonomic units (OTUs), 68 % of which were identified as fungi, represented by four phyla. The Mantel test revealed that the O-horizon communities are spatially clustered, and the observed high β-diversity was driven not only by changes in OTUs present, but also by high turnover in identities of OTUs in soil samples. Furthermore, Mantel correlogram analysis showed that the O-horizon communities resembled each other in composition within the range of 50 m, whereas the A-horizon communities lacked such horizontal autocorrelation. These differences in the scale patchiness could arise from two processes: (1) that environmental conditions could show higher heterogeneity in finer scale at the A-horizon than at the O-horizon; and/or (2) dispersal could be more frequent at the O-horizon than the A-horizon. The present study suggests that either environmental filtering (i.e., the niche-based process) or dispersal limitation (i.e., neutral process) could characterize the observed patterns of spatial clustering in the soil fungal community.     

宝天曼国家级自然保护区三种林型土壤的亮孢黏菌多样性

黏菌是土壤原生生物的重要组成部分,但其群落组成与多样性格局信息目前还不全面。本研究采用18S rRNA基因高通量测序的方法,研究了宝天曼自然保护区内落叶阔叶林、针叶林和针阔混交林土壤中的亮孢黏菌多样性,并通过多元统计方法分析了其群落结构与土壤环境因子之间的关系。结果表明,30份土壤样品中共获得26个亮孢黏菌的可操作分类单元（OTUs）,隶属团毛菌目Trichiales下的7个属。4个OTUs可注释到种,分别为球圆团网菌Arcyria globosa、蛇形半网菌Hemitrichia serpula、刺丝团毛菌Trichia scabra和高山团毛菌Trichia alpina。亮孢黏菌群落α多样性在不同林型间有显著差异,其中在针叶林最高,落叶阔叶林最低。不同林型土壤的亮孢黏菌群落结构也显著不同,冗余分析显示,不同林型间黏菌群落结构差异与土壤含水量、碳氮比、有效钾和有机碳显著相关,但总体土壤环境因子对群落结构差异的解释量有限,占比10.18%。本研究丰富了土壤黏菌多样性信息和生态分布理论。