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Metagenomic approach revealed effects of forest thinning on bacterial communities in the forest soil of Mt. Janggunbong, South Korea

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Abstract

The soil microbiome that plays important ecological roles in mountains and forests is influenced by anthropogenic and natural causes. Human activity, particularly harvesting or thinning, affects the soil microbiome in forests by altering environmental conditions, such as vegetation, microclimate, and soil physicochemical properties. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects on forest thinning on the diversity and composition of the soil bacterial community. From next-generation sequencing results of the 16S rRNA gene, we examined differences in soil bacterial diversity and community composition before and after thinning at Mt. Janggunbong, South Korea. We identified 40 phyla, 103 classes, 192 orders, 412 families, 947 genera, and 3,145 species from the soil samples. Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria were the most dominant bacterial phyla in the forest soil of Mt. Janggunbong. Soil bacterial diversity measures (richness, Shannon diversity index, and evenness) at the phylum level increased after thinning, whereas species-level taxonomic richness decreased after thinning. Thinning provided new opportunities for bacterial species in Chloroflexi, Verrucomicrobia, Nitrospirae, and other nondominant bacterial taxa, especially for those not found in Mt. Janggunbong before thinning, to settle and adapt to the changing environment. Our results suggested that thinning affected the diversity and composition of soil bacterial communities in forests and mountains.

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Acknowledgements

This study was carried out with the support of R&D Program for Forest Science Technology (Project No. 2013069D10-1719-AA03) provided by Korea Forest Service (Korea Forestry Promotion Institute).

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  1. Department of Forest Resources, Kongju National University, Yesan, 32439, Korea

    Byeong-Ju Lee & Soo Hyung Eo

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Lee, BJ., Eo, S.H. Metagenomic approach revealed effects of forest thinning on bacterial communities in the forest soil of Mt. Janggunbong, South Korea. J. Mt. Sci. 15, 59–67 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-017-4428-6

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