Soil bacterial communities associated with multi-nutrient cycling under long-term warming in the alpine meadow

Xiaorong Zhou; Xianke Chen; Xiangning Qi; Yiyuan Zeng; Xiaowei Guo; Guoqiang Zhuang; Anzhou Ma

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1136187

Soil bacterial communities associated with multi-nutrient cycling under long-term warming in the alpine meadow

Front Microbiol. 2023 Feb 23:14:1136187. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1136187. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xiaorong Zhou^{1

2}, Xianke Chen^{1

3

4}, Xiangning Qi^{1

2}, Yiyuan Zeng^{1

2}, Xiaowei Guo⁵, Guoqiang Zhuang^{1

2}, Anzhou Ma^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
² College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ Sino-Danish College of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, Beijing, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, China.

Abstract

Introduction: The functions of terrestrial ecosystems are mainly maintained by bacteria, as a key component of microorganisms, which actively participate in the nutrient cycling of ecosystems. Currently, there are few studies have been carried out on the bacteria contributing to the soil multi-nutrient cycling in responding to climate warming, which hampers our obtainment of a comprehensive understanding of the ecological function of ecosystems as a whole.

Methods: In this study, the main bacteria taxa contributing to the soil multi-nutrient cycling under the long-term warming in an alpine meadow was determined based onphysichemical properties measurement and high-throughput sequencing, and the potential reasons that warming altered the main bacteria contributing to the soil multi-nutrient cycling were further analyzed.

Results: The results confirmed that the bacterial β-diversity was crucial to the soil multi-nutrient cycling. Furthermore, Gemmatimonadetes, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria were the main contributors to the soil multi-nutrient cycling, and played pivotal roles as keystone nodes and biomarkers throughout the entire soil profile. This suggested that warming altered and shifted the main bacteria contributing to the soil multi-nutrient cycling toward keystone taxa.

Discussion: Meanwhile, their relative abundance was higher, which could make them have the advantage of seizing resources in the face of environmental pressures. In summary, the results demonstrated the crucial role of keystone bacteria in the multi-nutrient cycling under the climate warming in the alpine meadow. This has important implications for understanding and exploring the multi-nutrient cycling of alpine ecosystems under the global climate warming.

Keywords: bacteria; climate warming; keystones; multi-nutrient cycling; profile.