Abstract
Aims
Biocrusts, the living skin of dryland ecosystems, contain diverse soil microorganisms that are essential to biocrust formation and the maintenance of multiple ecological functions including nitrogen fixation, carbon sequestration, soil stability, and rainfall redistribution. We know that biocrusts are important modulators of the soil microbiomes, however, much less is known about how local conditions influence biocrust adaptation and subsequently alter the soil microbiomes.
Methods
To understand the effects of microhabitat on bacterial communities via changes in biocrust traits, we collected biocrusts and analyzed soil microbiomes from eight representative microhabitats present in a semiarid ecosystem from the Chinese Northern Loess Plateau. These microhabitats were located a) outside plant canopy on level land, on shady gentle slope, and sunny gentle slope; b) under plant canopy on level land, on shady gentle, and sunny gentle slope; and c) outside plant canopy on shady and sunny steep slope, respectively. We then used structural equation modeling to investigate the relative contribution of microhabitat factors on important bacterial community metrics through quantifying the changes in biocrust traits.
Results
Observed microhabitat conditions significantly (P ≤ 0.033) altered the traits of biocrusts (e.g., thickness, biomass, and chlorophyll content), which were associated with significant changes in the soil bacterial community. For example, the bacterial richness in biocrusts developing under plant canopy, on shady slopes, and on gentle slopes was 20.1%, 19.9%, and 15.4% higher than that of the biocrusts developing outside plant canopy, on sunny slopes, and on steep slopes, respectively. We further showed that microhabitat conditions significantly impacted the network structure of bacterial communities under biocrusts, and structural equation modeling revealed that microhabitat metrics had strong indirect effects on network connectivity through changing biocrust traits.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that microhabitat factors can strongly influence soil bacterial communities via the changes in locally-adapted biocrust traits and soil properties. This knowledge is critical to understand the impacts of changing environments on biocrusts and associated soil bacterial communities, particularly as climate change progresses.
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Data availability
The data that supports the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.
Abbreviations
- SEM:
-
Structural equation modeling
- SWC:
-
Soil water content
- ST:
-
Soil temperature
- SOM:
-
Soil organic matter
- TN:
-
Total nitrogen
- NH4-N:
-
Ammonium
- NO3-N:
-
Nitrate
- TP:
-
Total phosphorus
- AP:
-
Available phosphorus
- OCL:
-
Outside plant canopy on level land
- UCL:
-
Under plant canopy on level land
- ONG:
-
Outside plant canopy on the north shady gentle slope of fixed dune
- UNG:
-
Under plant canopy on the north shady gentle slope of fixed dune
- ONS:
-
Outside plant canopy on north shady steep slope of fixed dune
- OSG:
-
Outside plant canopy on south sunny gentle slope of fixed dune
- USG:
-
Under plant canopy on south sunny gentle slope of fixed dune
- OSS:
-
Outside plant canopy on south sunny steep slope of fixed dune
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42077010), the "Light of West China" Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. 2019), and the Open Fund for Key Laboratory of Land Degradation and Ecological Restoration in Northwestern China of Ningxia University (No. LDER2022Z02).
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Wang, Y., Xiao, B., Wang, W. et al. Biocrust adaptations to microhabitat alter bacterial communities in a semiarid ecosystem. Plant Soil 492, 413–427 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06184-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06184-3