Controls on diversity of core and indicative microbial subcommunities in Tibetan Plateau grassland soils

• Published in: FEMS microbiology ecology Vol. 99; no. 7
• Main Authors: Tang, Yazhou, Fan, Dandan, Guo, Wei, Kong, Weidong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Oxford University Press 16.06.2023
• Subjects: Carbon; Disturbances; Ecological function; Ecology; Ecosystem; Ecosystem stability; Ecosystems; Environmental changes; Environmental factors; Grassland; Grasslands; Grazing; Human impact; Humans; Microorganisms; Organic carbon; Organic soils; Plant biomass; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; rRNA 16S; Soil; Soil Microbiology; Soil microorganisms; Soil nutrients; Soils; Tibet; Tibet; Tibetan Plateau; human disturbances; Tibetan Plateau; indicative microbes; core microbes; grazing; dry grassland
• ISSN: 1574-6941; 0168-6496; 1574-6941
• DOI: 10.1093/femsec/fiad059

Abstract Core subcommunity represents the less diversity but high abundance, while indicative subcommunity is highly diverse but low abundance in soils. The core subcommunity fundamentally maintains ecosystem stability, while the indicative plays important roles in vital ecosystem functions and is more sensitive to environmental change. However, their environmental driving factors and responses to human disturbances remain less defined. Herein, we explored the patterns of core and indicative soil microbes and their responses to animal grazing in dry grasslands across the Tibetan Plateau, using the Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA gene. The results revealed that the core subcommunity diversity and richness were lower than the indicative in soils. The indicative subcommunity diversity exhibited substantially stronger correlations with nutrient-associated factors than the core diversity, including soil organic carbon, nitrogen, and plant biomass. The core and indicative microbial subcommunities both strongly varied with grassland ecosystems, while the latter was also significantly influenced by grazing. The variation partitioning analysis revealed that indicative microbial subcommunity was explained less by environmental factors than core subcommunity (34.5% vs 73.0%), but more influenced by grazing (2.6% vs 0.1%). Our findings demonstrated that the indicative microbes were particularly sensitive to soil nutrient-associated factors and human disturbances in alpine dry grasslands. This manuscript compared the diversity and structure of core and indicative subcommunities and their driving factors in grassland soils, highlighting that the indicative diversity is more sensitive than the core diversity to soil nutrient-associated factors.