Soil physicochemical properties drive the variation in soil microbial communities along a forest successional series in a degraded wetland in northeastern China

Abstract

The Sanjiang Plain is the biggest freshwater wetland locating in northeastern China. Due to climate change and human activities, that wetland has degraded to a successional gradient from the original flooded wetland to dry shrub vegetation and a forest area with lower ground water level, which may result in changes in soil microbiologic structure and functions. The present study investigated the microbial diversity and community structure in relation to soil properties along that successional gradient. The soil physico-chemical properties changed significantly with degradation stage. The Shannon diversity index of both soil bacteria (5.90–6.42) and fungi (1.7–4.19) varied significantly with successional stage (both p