Soil bacterial and fungal richness and network exhibit different responses to long-term throughfall reduction in a warm-temperate oak forest

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Abstract

Prolonged drought results in serious ecological consequences in forest ecosystems, particularly for soil microbial communities. However, much is unknown about soil microbial communities in their response to long-term consecutive droughts in warm-temperate forests. Here, we conducted a 7-year manipulated throughfall reduction experiment (TFR) to examine the responses of bacterial and fungal communities in terms of richness and networks. Our results show that long-term TFR reduced bacterial, but not fungal, richness, with rare bacterial taxa being more sensitive to TFR than dominant taxa. The bacterial network under the TFR treatment featured a simpler network structure and fewer competitive links compared to the control, implying weakened interactions among bacterial species. Bacterial genes involved in xenobiotic biodegradation and metabolism, and lignin-degrading enzymes were enhanced under TFR treatment, which may be attributed to TFR-induced increases in fine root biomass and turnover. Our results indicate that soil bacterial communities are more responsive than fungi to long-term TFR in a warm-temperate oak forest, leading to potential consequences such as the degradation of recalcitrant organics in soil.

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Zhang, J., Liu, S., Liu, C., Wang, H., Luan, J., Liu, X., … Niu, B. (2021). Soil bacterial and fungal richness and network exhibit different responses to long-term throughfall reduction in a warm-temperate oak forest. Forests, 12(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12020165

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