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Responses of bacterial community composition and diversity to multi-level nitrogen addition at different periods of growing season driven by conditional rare taxa in an alpine meadow

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Abstract

Rare species can switch between abundant and rare, respond to various external disturbances, enhance community resilience, and reduce the lag in ecosystem recovery. However, the impact of N enrichment on microbial community dynamic changes in rare species during the growing season is still poorly understood. To clarify which taxa contribute most to the community variation under N enrichment and whether the responses of these taxa vary at different periods of the growing season, we set up a 6-years multi-level field N addition experiment in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. The variation in soil bacterial community diversity, composition, species interactions, and assembly process of different abundance profiles were investigated in the early, mid, and late-growing seasons. Approximately 80% of bacteria were classified as rare taxa (including permanently and conditionally rare taxa). The influence of N enrichment on the bacterial community was seasonally dependent. Bacterial community diversity and composition dissimilarity significantly increased only in the early growing season, especially in permanently rare taxa and conditionally rare taxa, but remained stable in the mid-and late-growing seasons. Seasonal fluctuations led to a shift in community composition, and conditionally rare taxa were the primary component of seasonal variation in community composition. Simultaneously, microbial network complexity and stability gradually increased over time, as evidenced by decreased modularity and vulnerability and increased robustness, clustering coefficient, connectivity, and keystone nodes. The assembly of conditionally rare taxa showed a significant difference under N addition, presented as decreased drift and increased dispersal limitation, which are closely related to the composition of the entire bacterial community. Our findings emphasize that the conditionally rare taxa decisive contribute to changes in the bacterial community under N enrichment, but seasonal fluctuations can make bacterial communities resistant to the influence of N enrichment.

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Data accessibility

Sequence data have been submitted to the GenBank database under accession number PRJNA934136.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32171590) and the Youth Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Y2023QC08). Associated data are available in the supporting information.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Yilun Hu, Hasbagan Ganjurjav, Guozheng Hu, Guoxu Ji, Lin Han, Yubao Sha & Qingzhu Gao

  2. National Data Canter of Agricultural Environment, Beijing, 100081, China

    Guozheng Hu

  3. Ordos Forestry and Grassland Science Institute, Ordos, 017010, China

    Yan Liang

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  1. Yilun Hu
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  2. Hasbagan Ganjurjav
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  3. Guozheng Hu
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Hu, Y., Ganjurjav, H., Hu, G. et al. Responses of bacterial community composition and diversity to multi-level nitrogen addition at different periods of growing season driven by conditional rare taxa in an alpine meadow. Biol Fertil Soils 59, 939–952 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-023-01764-y

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