Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Soil bacterial community responses to revegetation of moving sand dune in semi-arid grassland

  • Environmental biotechnology
  • Published:
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Grasslands in semi-arid Northern China are widely desertified, thus inducing the formation of a large area of moving sand lands. Revegetation of the sandy land is commonly adopted to restore degraded grasslands. The structure of the soil microbial community might dramatically change during degradation and recovery because microorganisms are one of the major drivers of ecological process through their interactions with plants and soil. Assuming that soil properties are the key determinants of the structure of soil bacterial community within the same soil type, whether the vegetation type causes the significant difference in the structure of soil bacterial community during revegetation and restoration of the degraded grasslands remains poorly understood. Our study aimed to (1) investigate the response of soil bacterial communities to the changes during vegetation degradation and recovery and (2) evaluate whether the soil bacterial communities under plantations return to their native state. We detected the shifts in diversities and compositions of the soil bacterial communities and the relative abundance of dominant bacterial taxa by using the high-throughput Illumina MiSeq sequencing technique in an area covered by 32-year-old Caragana microphylla, Artemisia halodendron, Hedysarum fruticosum, Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica, Populus simonii, and Salix gordejevii sand-fixing plantations and in the native community (NC) dominated by elm, and moving sandy dune (MS). We found that the obtained operational taxonomic units by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and diversity index in MS were all significantly lower than those in NC, and the number and composition of dominant genera were significantly different between NC and MS. Interestingly, the compositions of bacterial communities and the dominant genera in different sand-fixation plantations (C. microphylla, A. halodendron, H. fruticosum, P. sylvestris var. mongolica, P. simonii, and S. gordejevii) were all similar to those of the native soil of NC, suggesting that the plantation type and soil properties exhibit a minimal effect on the compositions of soil microbial communities within a continuous landscape. These results revealed that the structure of the soil bacterial community of degraded sandy grassland (even degenerated into a mobile sand dunes) in semi-arid region can be reversibly restored by planting indigenous shrub or semi-shrub plantation on human time scales.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bartram AK, Lynch MDJ, Stearns JC, Moreno-Hagelsieb G, Neufeld JD (2011) Generation of multimillion-sequence 16S rRNA gene libraries from complex microbial communities by assembling paired-end Illumina reads. Appl Environ Microb 77:3846–3852

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Berg J, Brandt KK, Al-Soud WA, Holm PE, Hansen LH, Sørensen SJ, Nybroe O (2012) Selection for Cu-tolerant bacterial communities with altered composition, but unaltered richness, via long-term Cu exposure. Appl Environ Microbiol 78:7438–7446

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bruce KD, Jones TH, Bezemer TM, Thompson LJ, Ritchie DA (2000) The effect of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on soil bacterial communities. Glob Change Biol 6:427–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cao CY, Jiang DM, A MS, Luo YM, Kou ZW (2000) Ecological processes of vegetation restoration of Caragana mirophylla in the sand fixing area. Chin J Appl Ecol 11:349–354

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cao CY, Zhu LH, Jiang DM, Fu Y, Gao FF (2007) Effects of artificial sand-fixation communities on soil nutrients and biological properties in Horqin Sandy Land. Chin J Soil Water Conserv 21:168–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Cao CY, Jiang DM, Teng XH, Jiang Y, Liang WJ, Cui ZB (2008) Soil chemical and microbiological properties along a chronosequence of Caragana microphylla Lam. plantations in the Horqin Sandy Land of Northeast China. Appl Soil Ecol 40:78–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Degnan PH, Ochman H (2011) Illumina-based analysis of microbial community diversity. ISME J 6:183–194

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Drees KP, Neilson JW, Betancourt JL, Quade J, Henderson DA, Pryor BM, Maier RM (2006) Bacterial community structure in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert, Chile. Appl Environ Microbiol 72:7902–7908

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dregne HE (2002) Land degradation in the drylands. Arid Land Res Manag 16:99–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAO (2006) FAO/IUSS working group WRB, world reference base for soil resources. World soil resources reports 103. FAO, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • Golebiewski M, Deja-Sikora E, Cichosz M, Tretyn A, Wrobel B (2014) 16S rDNA pyrosequencing analysis of bacterial community in heavy metals polluted soils. Microb Ecol 67:635–647

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gomes NCM, Landi L, Smalla K, Nannipieri P, Brookes PC, Renella G (2010) Effects of Cd- and Zn-enriched sewage sludge on soil bacterial and fungal communities. Ecotox Environ Safe 73:1255–1263

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gonzalez JM, Simo R, Massana R, Covert JS, Casamayor EO, Pedros-Alio C, Moran MA (2000) Bacterial community structure associated with a dimethylsulfoniopropionate-producing North Atlantic algal bloom. Appl Environ Microbiol 66:4237–4246

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hugerth LW, Wefer HA, Lundin S, Jakobsson HE, Lindberg M, Rodin S, Engstrand L, Andersson AF (2014) DegePrime, a program for degenerate primer design for broad-taxonomic-range PCR in microbial ecology studies. Appl Environ Microbiol 80:5116–5123

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISSCAS) (1978) Physical and chemical analysis methods of soils. Shanghai Science Technology Press, Shanghai

    Google Scholar 

  • Iovieno P, Alfani A, Baath E (2010) Soil microbial community structure and biomass as affected by Pinus pinea plantation in two Mediterranean areas. Appl Soil Ecol 45:56–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jangid K, Williams MA, Franzluebbers AJ, Schmidt TM, Coleman DC, Whitman WB (2011) Land-use history has a stronger impact on soil microbial community composition than aboveground vegetation and soil properties. Soil Biol Biochem 43:2184–2193

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kara O, Bolat I, Cakiroglu K, Ozturk M (2008) Plant canopy effects on litter accumulation and soil microbial biomass in two temperate forests. Biol Fertil Soils 45:193–198

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kassas M (1995) Desertification: a general review. J Arid Environ 30:115–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keshri J, Mankazana BBJ, Momba MNB (2015) Profile of bacterial communities in South African mine-water samples using Illumina next-generation sequencing platform. Appl Environ Microbiol 99:3233–3242

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kozich JJ, Westcott SL, Baxter NT, Highlander SK, Schloss PD (2013) Development of a dual-index sequencing strategy and curation pipeline for analyzing amplicon sequence data on the MiSeq Illumina sequencing platform. Appl Environ Microbiol 79:5112–5120

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lauber CL, Strickland MS, Bradford MA, Fierer N (2008) The influence of soil properties on the structure of bacterial and fungal communities across land-use types. Soil Biol Biochem 40:2407–2415

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu WT, Marsh TL, Cheng H, Forney LJ (1997) Characterization of microbial diversity by determining terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms of genes encoding 16S rRNA. Appl Environ Microbiol 63:4516–4522

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Liu J, Hua ZS, Chen LX, Kuang JL, Li SJ, Shu WS, Huang LN (2014) Correlating microbial diversity patterns with geochemistry in an extreme and heterogeneous environment of mine tailings. Appl Environ Microbiol 80:3677–3686

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Miki T, Ushio M, Fukui S, Kondoh M (2010) Functional diversity of microbial decomposers facilitates plant coexistence in a plant-microbe-soil feedback model. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107:14251–14256

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Portune KJ, Perez MC, Alvarez-Hornos FJ, Gabaldon C (2014) Investigating bacterial populations in styrene-degrading biofilters by 16S rDNA tag pyrosequencing. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99:3–18

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Prescott CE, Grayston SJ (2013) Tree species influence on microbial communities in litter and soil: current knowledge and research needs. For Ecol Manag 309:19–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quince C, Lanzen A, Curtis TP, Davenport RJ, Hall N, Head IM, Read LF, Sloan WT (2009) Accurate determination of microbial diversity from 454 pyrosequencing data. Nat Methods 6:639–641

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ren GD, Zhang HY, Lin XG, Zhu JG, Jia ZJ (2014) Response of phyllosphere bacterial communities to elevated CO2 during rice growing season. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 98:9459–9471

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schloss PD, Westcott SL, Ryabin T, Hall JR, Hartmann M, Hollister EB, Lesniewski RA, Oakley BB, Parks DH, Robinson CJ, Sahl JW, Stres B, Thallinger GG, Van Horn DJ, Weber C (2009) Introducing Mothur: open-source, platform independent, community-supported software for describing and comparing microbial communities. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 75:7537–7541

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shi YW, Yang HM, Zhang T, Sun J, Lou K (2014) Illumina-based analysis of endophytic bacterial diversity and space-time dynamics in sugar beet on the north slope of Tianshan Mountain. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 98:6375–6385

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singh BK, Millard P, Whiteley AS, Murrell JC (2004) Unravelling rhizosphere-microbial interactions: opportunities and limitations. Trends Microbiol 12:386–393

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singh B, Crippen TL, Zheng LY, Fields AT, Yu ZN, Ma Q, Wood TK, Dowd SE, Flores M, Tomberlin JK, Tarone AM (2015) A metagenomic assessment of the bacteria associated with Lucilia sericata and Lucilia cuprina (Diptera: Calliphoridae). Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99:869–883

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Su YZ, Zhang TH, Li YL, Wang F (2005) Changes in soil properties after establishment of Artemisia halodendron and Caragana microphylla on shifting sand dunes in semi-arid Horqin Sandy Land, Northern China. Environ Manag 36:272–281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suleiman AKA, Manoeli L, Boldo JT, Pereira MG, Roesch LFW (2013) Shifts in soil bacterial community after eight years of land-use change. Syst Appl Microbiol 36:137–144

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Urbanova M, Snajdr J, Baldrian P (2015) Composition of fungal and bacterial communities in forest litter and soil is largely determined by dominant trees. Soil Biol Biochem 84:53–64

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Uroz S, Ioannidis P, Lengelle J, Cebron A, Morin E, Buée M, Martin F (2013) Functional assays and metagenomic analyses reveals differences between the microbial communities inhabiting the soil horizons of a Norway spruce plantation. PLoS One 8:e55929. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055929

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ushio M, Wagai R, Balser TC, Kitayama K (2008) Variations in the soil microbial community composition of a tropical montane forest ecosystem: does tree species matter? Soil Biol Biochem 40:2699–2702

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang T, Zhu ZD (2003) Study on sandy desertification in China—definition of sandy desertification and its connotation. J Desert Res 23:209–214

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang Q, Garrity GM, Tiedje JM, Cole JR (2007) Naive Bayesian classifier for rapid assignment of rRNA sequences into the new bacterial taxonomy. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 73:5261–5267

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang XB, Van Nostrand JD, Deng Y, Lu XT, Wang C, Zhou JZ, Han XG (2015) Scale-dependent effects of climate and geographic distance on bacterial diversity patterns across northern China’s grasslands. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 91:fiv133. doi:10.1093/femsec/fiv133

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Whitman WB, Coleman DC, Wiebe WJ (1998) Prokaryotes: the unseen majority. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 95:6578–6583

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Yang CY, Li Y, Zhou B, Zhou YY, Zheng W, Tian Y, Van Nostrand JD, Wu LY, He ZL, Zhou JZ, Zheng TL (2015) Illumina sequencing-based analysis of free-living bacterial community dynamics during an Akashiwo sanguine bloom in Xiamen Sea, China. Sci Rep 5:8476. doi:10.1038/srep08476

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang TH, Zhao HJ, Li SG, Li FR, Shirato Y, Ohkuro T, Taniyama I (2004) A comparison of different measures for stabilizing moving sand dunes in the Horqin Sandy Land of Inner Mongolia, China. J Arid Environ 58:202–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Cao CY, Han XS, Jiang SY (2013) Soil nutrient and microbiological property recoveries via native shrub and semi-shrub plantations on moving sand dunes in Northeast China. Ecol Eng 53:1–5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Cao CY, Peng M, Xu XJ, Zhang P, Yu QJ, Sun T (2014) Diversity of nitrogen-fixing, ammonia-oxidizing, and denitrifying bacteria in biological soil crusts of a revegetation area in Horqin Sandy Land, Northeast China. Ecol Eng 71:71–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao HL, Zhou RL, Su YZ, Zhang H, Zhao LY, Drake S (2007) Shrub facilitation of desert land restoration in the Horqin Sand Land of Inner Mongolia. Ecol Eng 31:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao DY, Huang R, Zeng J, Yu ZB, Liu P, Cheng SP, Wu QLL (2014a) Pyrosequencing analysis of bacterial community and assembly in activated sludge samples from different geographic regions in China. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 98:9119–9128

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao J, Ni T, Li Y, Xiong W, Ran W, Shen BA, Shen QR, Zhang RF (2014b) Responses of bacterial communities in arable soils in rice-wheat cropping system to different fertilizer regimes and sampling times. PLoS One 9:e85301. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0085301

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou JZ, Xia BC, Huang H, Palumbo AV, Tiedje JM (2004) Microbial diversity and heterogeneity in sandy subsurface soils. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 70:1723–1734

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou RL, Li YQ, Zhao HL, Drake S (2008) Desertification effects on C and N content of sandy soils under grassland in Horqin, northern China. Geoderma 3-4:370–375

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the members of the Wulanaodu Station of Desertification Research under Chinese Academy of Sciences for their technical assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life and Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110169, People’s Republic of China

    Chengyou Cao, Ying Zhang, Zhenbo Cui, Shuwei Feng, Tingting Wang & Qing Ren

Authors
  1. Chengyou Cao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ying Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zhenbo Cui
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Shuwei Feng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Tingting Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Qing Ren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chengyou Cao.

Ethics declarations

Funding

This study was supported by funds from the National Natural Science foundation of China (41371505) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC0500803).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cao, C., Zhang, Y., Cui, Z. et al. Soil bacterial community responses to revegetation of moving sand dune in semi-arid grassland. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 101, 6217–6228 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-017-8336-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-017-8336-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation