The soil microbial community of turf: linear and nonlinear changes of taxa and N-cycling gene abundances over a century-long turf development

• Published in: FEMS microbiology ecology Vol. 95; no. 2; p. 1
• Main Authors: Chen, Huaihai, Xia, Qing, Yang, Tianyou, Bowman, Daniel, Shi, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Oxford University Press 01.02.2019
• Subjects: Abundance; Actinobacteria; Actinobacteria - classification; Actinobacteria - genetics; Actinobacteria - isolation & purification; Availability; bacterial communities; Bacteroidetes; Bacteroidetes - classification; Bacteroidetes - genetics; Bacteroidetes - isolation & purification; Biodiversity; chronosequences; Community composition; community structure; Composition; Cycles; DNA, Intergenic - genetics; Ecology; Ecosystem management; Ecosystems; Environmental aspects; fungal communities; Genes; Genetic aspects; Glomeromycota; Glomeromycota - classification; Glomeromycota - genetics; Glomeromycota - isolation & purification; Grasses; internal transcribed spacers; Land use; lawns and turf; Microbial colonies; Microbiology; Microbiota - genetics; Microorganisms; Nitrogen cycle; Nitrospirae; Organic matter; Physiological aspects; Pinus - microbiology; Poaceae - microbiology; Proteobacteria; Proteobacteria - classification; Proteobacteria - genetics; Proteobacteria - isolation & purification; Relative abundance; Resource availability; ribosomal DNA; ribosomal RNA; RNA; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; rRNA 16S; soil; Soil - chemistry; Soil Microbiology; Soil microorganisms; soil organic carbon; Soil organic matter; Soils; Species richness; Taxa; Turf; Turfgrasses; China; resource availability; N-cycling genes; microbial diversity; next-generation sequencing; OTUs; turf chronosequence
• ISSN: 1574-6941; 0168-6496; 1574-6941
• DOI: 10.1093/femsec/fiy224

ABSTRACT Turf, consisting of closely spaced grasses and the subtending soil, is a unique ecosystem subject to intense management. Yet soil organic matter accumulates quickly and reaches equilibrium after 20 to 50 years. Resource availability is an important driver of species richness and theoretically their relationship is expected to be unimodal. In this work, we examined the effects of turf development (i.e. a 1, 15, 20 and 109 year-old chronosequence) on microbial taxon richness, community composition, and abundances of genes putatively involved in N cycling through 16S rRNA gene and ITS region amplicon sequencing. Microbial alpha-diversity remained relatively stable although soil organic C and N increased by up to 3-fold over a century-long turf development. However, both bacterial and fungal community compositions changed substantially from those in the previous land use, pine stands and along turf development. Youngest turf was closer to the oldest turf than to middle-aged ones, specifically for bacterial community. Microbial changes to resource availability were also taxonomically specific. The relative abundance of Proteobacteria was independent of resource availability; Nitrospirae increased monotonically, and Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria and Glomeromycota varied curvilinearly. However, abundances of most taxa from the phylum to operational taxonomic unit level and N-cycling genes varied nonlinearly with turf development. Turf, an apparent copiotrophic environment, harbors diverse microbial taxa; the abundances of most taxa from the phylum to operational taxonomic unit level changed nonlinearly along turf development.