The divergent vertical pattern and assembly of soil bacterial and fungal communities in response to short-term warming in an alpine peatland

Xiaodong Wang; Yong Li; Zhongqing Yan; Yanbin Hao; Enze Kang; Xiaodong Zhang; Meng Li; Kerou Zhang; Liang Yan; Ao Yang; Yuechuan Niu; Xiaoming Kang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.986034

The divergent vertical pattern and assembly of soil bacterial and fungal communities in response to short-term warming in an alpine peatland

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Sep 8:13:986034. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.986034. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xiaodong Wang^{1

2

3}, Yong Li^{1

2

3}, Zhongqing Yan^{1

2

3}, Yanbin Hao⁴, Enze Kang^{1

2

3}, Xiaodong Zhang^{1

2

3}, Meng Li^{1

2

3}, Kerou Zhang^{1

2

3}, Liang Yan^{1

2

3}, Ao Yang^{1

2

3}, Yuechuan Niu⁴, Xiaoming Kang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Wetland Research Center, Institute of Ecological Conservation and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Beijing, China.
³ Sichuan Zoige Wetland Ecosystem Research Station, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, Aba, China.
⁴ College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Soil microbial communities are crucial in ecosystem-level decomposition and nutrient cycling processes and are sensitive to climate change in peatlands. However, the response of the vertical distribution of microbial communities to warming remains unclear in the alpine peatland. In this study, we examined the effects of warming on the vertical pattern and assembly of soil bacterial and fungal communities across three soil layers (0-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm) in the Zoige alpine peatland under a warming treatment. Our results showed that short-term warming had no significant effects on the alpha diversity of either the bacterial or the fungal community. Although the bacterial community in the lower layers became more similar as soil temperature increased, the difference in the vertical structure of the bacterial community among different treatments was not significant. In contrast, the vertical structure of the fungal community was significantly affected by warming. The main ecological process driving the vertical assembly of the bacterial community was the niche-based process in all treatments, while soil carbon and nutrients were the main driving factors. The vertical structure of the fungal community was driven by a dispersal-based process in control plots, while the niche and dispersal processes jointly regulated the fungal communities in the warming plots. Plant biomass was significantly related to the vertical structure of the fungal community under the warming treatments. The variation in pH was significantly correlated with the assembly of the bacterial community, while soil water content, microbial biomass carbon/microbial biomass phosphorous (MBC/MBP), and microbial biomass nitrogen/ microbial biomass phosphorous (MBN/MBP) were significantly correlated with the assembly of the fungal community. These results indicate that the vertical structure and assembly of the soil bacterial and fungal communities responded differently to warming and could provide a potential mechanism of microbial community assembly in the alpine peatland in response to warming.

Keywords: alpine peatland; community assembly; soil microbial community; vertical structure; warming.