Increased litter input significantly changed the total and active microbial communities in degraded grassland soils

• Published in: Journal of soils and sediments Vol. 20; no. 7; pp. 2804 - 2816
• Main Authors: Che, Rongxiao, Liu, Dong, Qin, Jinling, Wang, Fang, Wang, Weijin, Xu, Zhihong, Li, Linfeng, Hu, Jinming, Tahmasbian, Iman, Cui, Xiaoyong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abundance; Biological fertilization; Denitrification; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA sequencing; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental Physics; Factorial design; Fertilization; Grasslands; Litter; Microbial activity; Microorganisms; Nitrogen fixation; Nitrogenation; Nucleic acids; Nucleotide sequence; Organic matter; Organic phosphorus; Organic soils; Pathogens; PCR; Phosphorus; Population studies; Profiles; Relative abundance; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article; Soil; Soil microorganisms; Soil Science & Conservation; Soils; Transcription; Tibetan Plateau; Microbial activity; Grassland degradation; Soil microbes; Grassland restoration
• ISSN: 1439-0108; 1614-7480
• DOI: 10.1007/s11368-020-02619-x

Purpose Increasing organic matter input and phosphorus fertilization are employed extensively to restore degraded grasslands. Nevertheless, little is known about their effects on microbes, especially on active microbial populations. Therefore, this study is aimed at examining the short-term influences of litter and phosphorus addition on microbes in degraded grassland soils. Materials and methods A microcosm experiment was established using soils sampled from a heavily degraded Tibetan alpine meadow. The experiment used a two-way factorial design with grass litter and phosphorus addition as the main factors. Microbial abundance and rDNA transcriptional activity were assessed through quantitative PCR. Total and active microbial community profiles were measured using DNA- and RNA-based MiSeq sequencing, respectively. Results and discussion As shown in this study, litter addition significantly increased microbial rDNA transcriptional activity and fungal abundance, but it decreased microbial α-diversity. However, prokaryote abundance was unaffected by the litter addition. Total and active soil microbial community profiles and interaction patterns were also significantly altered by litter addition. The relative abundance of copiotrophic and oligotrophic microbial lineages significantly increased and decreased, respectively, in the soils with litter addition. Functional predictions suggested that litter addition might significantly increase the abundance of pathogens, as well as microbes related to nitrogen fixation, denitrification, and chitinolysis, while decreasing nitrifier abundance. In contrast, no significant effects of the phosphorus addition on soil microbes were observed. Conclusions These findings highlight the significant effects of increasing litter input on total and active soil microbial communities and suggest that microbial responses should be considered when restoring degraded grasslands by increasing organic matter input.