Key microorganisms defining the microbial communities of an alpine legume-shrubland ecosystem on a volcanic island in natural and fire-affected soils

Abstract

Background: Teide National Park (Canary Islands) is an alpine volcanic ecosystem with shrub vegetation in which legume Spartocytisus supranubius is the most characteristic key species for nitrogen input to the ecosystem. Aims and methods: Bacterial and fungal communities in bulk and rhizosphere soils were analysed through high-throughput sequencing in undisturbed and wildfire-impacted areas to identify key microorganisms in burned and unburned soils. Results: Microbial communities in undisturbed areas exhibited comparable diversity in bulk and rhizosphere soils, but differed in structure and composition. An unusual abundance of non-photosynthetic Chloroflexi from the oligotrotrophic class Ktedonobacteria dominated the bulk soils, surpassing Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria. The rhizosphere effect resulted in a microbiome with a more balanced abundance of these four phyla and enriched in potentially plant growth-promoting microorganisms. The impact of a wildfire on the shrub vegetation resulted in a microbial community, especially the fungal community, reduced in diversity and changed in structure and composition, with many of the most characteristic rhizosphere genera becoming vanished, while others took advantage of the postfire conditions and became predominant. Conclusion: The microbial communities of Teide National Park in fire-affected soils, particularly in the rhizosphere environment of the legume shrubland are significantly altered two years after a wildfire, remaining far from unburned scenarios, suggesting a slow recovery in alpine ecosystem with dry volcanic soils. Pseudarthrobacter (Actinobacteria) and Coprinellus (Basidiomycota), the two most fire-favoured genera, are good indicators of fire severity and are proposed as bioindicators to monitor the recovery of the soil ecosystem.