Increasing acid rain frequency promotes the microbial community dissimilarities of forest soil rather than agricultural soil in southern China

Ziqiang Liu; Hui Wei; Jiaen Zhang; Ting Wang; Yanan He; Jiawen Zhong; Rui Ma

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.113123

Increasing acid rain frequency promotes the microbial community dissimilarities of forest soil rather than agricultural soil in southern China

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2022 Jan 15:230:113123. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.113123. Epub 2021 Dec 29.

Authors

Ziqiang Liu¹, Hui Wei², Jiaen Zhang³, Ting Wang¹, Yanan He¹, Jiawen Zhong¹, Rui Ma¹

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Eco-circular Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, China; Department of Ecology, College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Eco-circular Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, China; Department of Ecology, College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Centre of Modern Eco-agriculture and Circular Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; Key Laboratory of Agro-Environment in the Tropics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China. Electronic address: weihui@scau.edu.cn.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Eco-circular Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, China; Department of Ecology, College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Centre of Modern Eco-agriculture and Circular Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; Key Laboratory of Agro-Environment in the Tropics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China. Electronic address: jeanzh@scau.edu.cn.

PMID: 34973605
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.113123

Abstract

Soil microbial community drives the terrestrial carbon (C) cycling by C sources metabolism (i.e., organic C decomposition), however, the microbial response to changing acid rain frequency remains less studied, thus hampering global warming projection. Here, we manipulated a simulated experiment to decipher the impact of acid rain frequency (0, 30%, and 100%) on microbial community and C sources metabolism in the agricultural and forest soils of southern China, based on the phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) analysis and BIOLOG method, respectively. We found that changing acid rain frequency did not affect the microbial biomass and community structure of agricultural soil during the whole experiment period, while the 30% and 100% acid rain frequencies significantly decreased the microbial biomass, and altered the microbial community structure of forest soil at the early stage. However, changing acid rain frequency did not influence the microbial C sources metabolism in the agricultural soil, but 30% acid rain frequency significantly reduced the microbial utilization of carboxylic acids in the forest soil. Moreover, increasing acid rain frequency promoted the microbial community dissimilarities of forest soil. The microbial community structure and C sources utilization of agricultural soil were significantly related to soil available phosphorus content, while that of forest soil correlated with the soil available potassium content and temperature. Changes in soil environmental condition, soil acidification parameters and soil nutrients explained most of the variance of microbial community and C sources utilization (81% and 57%, respectively) in the forest soil, whereas great uncertainties of microbial community and C sources utilization existed in the agricultural soil with the explanatory proportion being 20% and 10%, respectively. Our findings suggest that the microbial community of forest soil is more sensitive to changing acid rain frequency than that of agricultural soil in a short term. These results support the prediction of microbes-driven C cycling dynamics in specific soil ecosystems in the context of changing acid rain frequency.

Keywords: Acid deposition; C sources utilization; Microbial response; Soil microorganisms.