Jiang C, Zhu S, Feng J, Shui W. Slope aspect affects the soil microbial communities in karst tiankeng negative landforms.
BMC Ecol Evol 2022;
22:54. [PMID:
35501694 PMCID:
PMC9063220 DOI:
10.1186/s12862-022-01986-y]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2021] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Background
Karst tiankeng is a large-scale negative surface terrain, and slope aspects affect the soil conditions, vegetation and microbial flora in the tiankeng. However, the influence of the slope aspect on the soil microbial community in tiankeng has not been elucidated.
Methods
In this study, metagenomic sequencing technology was used to analyze the soil microbial community structure and functional potentials on the shady and sunny slopes of karst tiankeng.
Results
The Shannon–Wiener diversity of microbial communities on shady slope (SHS) was significantly higher than that on sunny slope (SUS). Although the composition of dominant phyla on shady slope (SHS) and sunny slope (SUS) was similar, there were significant differences in beta-diversity. The linear discriminate analysis (LDA) results showed that biomarkers mainly belongs to Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi and Proteobacteria. Functional pathways and CAZy (Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes) genes also had a remarkable response to slope aspect change. LEfSe results indicated several biomarker pathways in sunny slope involved in human disease. Moreover, the abundance of CAZy genes was higher in shady slope and had stronger ability in decomposing litter. The microbial communities were mainly correlation with the vegetation characteristics (species richness and coverage) and soil properties (SOC and pH).
Conclusions
These results indicate slope aspect has a pronounced influence on microbial community composition, structure and function at karst tiankeng. In the future, the conservation of karst tiankeng biodiversity should pay more attention to topographical factors.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12862-022-01986-y.
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