Distribution of soil microorganisms in different complex soil layers in Mu Us sandy land

PLoS One. 2023 Apr 7;18(4):e0283341. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283341. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

The soft rock in Mu Us Sandy Land has rich resources and high content of clay minerals. The combination of soft rock with sand can play a certain role in sand fixation and promote the green development of ecological environment. In this paper, the aeolian sandy soil in Mu Us Sandy was taken as the research object, and it was mixed with soft rock to form composite soil. The four volume ratios of soft rock to sand were respectively 0:1, 1:5, 1:2 and 1:1. And CK, P1, P2 and P3 were used to represent the above four volume ratios in turn. By means of quantitative fluorescent PCR and high throughput sequencing, 16S rRNA gene abundance and community structure were investigated. The results showed that the soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) contents in 0-30cm soil layer were higher. Compared with CK, the SOC of P2 was improved by 112.77% and that of P1 was 88.67%. The content of available phosphorus (AP) and available potassium (AK) was higher in 30-60cm soil layer, and P3 was more effective. The abundance of 16S rRNA gene in the mixed soil bacteria ranged from 0.03×109 to 0.21×109 copies g-1 dry soil, which was consistent with the changes of nutrients. Under different soil layers, the three dominant bacteria in the mixed soil were the same, namely Phylum Actinobacteriota, Phylum Proteobacteria and Phylum Chloroflexi, and there were more unique genera in each soil layer. Both bacteria ɑ and β diversity showed that the community structure of P1 and P3 in 0-30cm soil layers was similar, and that of P1 and P2 in 30-60cm soil layers was similar. AK, SOC, AN (ammonium nitrogen), TN and NN (nitrate nitrogen) were the main factors contributing to the differentiation of microbial community structure under different compound ratios and soil layers, and Phylum Actinobacteria has the largest correlation with nutrients. The results showed that the soft rock could improve the quality of sandy soil, and that the growth of microbial growth was dependent on the soil physicochemical characteristics. The results of this study will be helpful to the study of the microscopical theory for the control of the wind-blown sand and the ecology of the desert.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacteria / genetics
  • Carbon / analysis
  • China
  • Nitrogen / analysis
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
  • Sand*
  • Soil Microbiology
  • Soil* / chemistry

Substances

  • Soil
  • Sand
  • Carbon
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
  • Nitrogen

Grants and funding

This study is financially supported by The Shaanxi Provincial Natural Science Basic Research Program Project (HW, 2021JZ-57), Funded by Technology Innovation Center for Land Engineering and Human Settlements, Shaanxi Land Engineering Construction Group Co.,Ltd and Xi'an Jiaotong University (ZG, 2021WHZ0087), Shaanxi Province Youth Science and Technology Nova Project (JL, 2021KJXX-88), Internal scientific research project of Shaanxi Land Engineering Construction Group (ZG, DJNY2022-24) and Innovation Capability Support Program of Shaanxi (TC, 2021PT-053). ZG conducted Conceptualization,Methodology,Resources, Writing-original draft and Writing-review & editing. HW conducted Funding acquisition, Project administration and Supervision. JL conducted Formal analysis and Resources. TC conducted Investigation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.