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Effect of monospecific and mixed Cunninghamia lanceolata plantations on microbial community and two functional genes involved in nitrogen cycling

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Abstract

Conversion of native broadleaf forest (NF) and introduction of broadleaf species into monospecific Cunninghamia lanceolata plantations are silvicultural practices driven by the increasing demand for timber production. This study was conducted to evaluate the impacts of successive planting of C. lanceolata and mixed plantations (C. lanceolata-Michelia macclurei, CFM; C. lanceolata-Alnus cremastogyne, CFA; C. lanceolata-Kalopanax septemlobus, CFK) on microbial community diversity. Microbial biomass (MBC) was assessed using chloroform fumigation-extraction. Using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), we examined the biodiversity within eubacterial (16S rRNA gene) and fungal (28S rRNA gene) species and two genes involved in N cycling: nifH and amoA. Microbial community diversities and microbial biomass decreased as NF was substituted by successive plantings of C. lanceolata plantations, whereas the trend reversed after introducing the broadleaf, M. macclurei, into pure C. lanceolata plantations. A strong positive correlation between MBC changes and total organic C (TOC), total organic N (TON), available N and extractable C (Cext) were seen, which suggests that MBC was tightly coupled with the content of soil organic matter. The Shannon index showed that bacterial diversity and two functional genes (nifH and amoA) diversities associated with monospecific C. lanceolata plantations were lower than that of NF or mixed C. lanceolata plantations, such as CFM and CFA, whereas the opposite was seen for fungal diversity. Bacterial diversity was positively correlated with pH, TOC, TON, Cext and NH +4 -N; while fungal diversity was positively correlated with C/N ratio and negatively correlated with pH. Both nitrogen fixing and ammonia oxidizing bacterial diversities were positively correlated with pH. Thus, soil pH was not only significantly positively correlated with bacterial diversity (r = 0.502, P < 0.05), nifH gene diversity (r = 0.564, P < 0.01) and amoA gene diversity (r = 0.659, P < 0.001), but also negatively correlated with fungal diversity (r = − 0.505, P < 0.05), which seemed to be responsible for the discrimination of the soil microbial communities among these plantations. These findings suggest that different silvicultural practices have significant impacts on the soil microbial community through influences on soil chemical properties.

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Abbreviations

NF:

the native broadleaf forest

FCF:

the first-generation Cunninghamia lanceolata plantation

SCF:

the second-generation Cunninghamia lanceolata plantation

TCF:

the third-generation Cunninghamia lanceolata plantation

CF:

Cunninghamia lanceolata plantation

CFM:

Cunninghamia lanceolata -Michelia macclurei mixed plantation

CFA:

Cunninghamia lanceolata -Alnus cremastogyne mixed plantation

CFK:

Cunninghamia lanceolata -Kalopanax septemlobus mixed plantation

DGGE:

denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis

PCA:

principal component analysis

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (40801093 and 40801202) and the Key Project of the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCXZ-YW-405).We thank Ch. Y. Chen, X. J. Yu, Q. K. Wang, L. Ch. Chen and B. Fang for considerable help with soil sampling in Huitong Experimental Station of Forest Ecology. We also thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions for improving this manuscript.

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  1. Cold and Arid Regions Environment and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 73000, China

    Li Liu & ZhengHu Duan

  2. Institute of Applied of Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Li Liu, MingKai Xu, JiangChun Hu, SiLong Wang, ZhiGang Hu, QianRu Zhang & ShuJin Wang

  3. Huitong Experimental Station of Forest Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huitong, 418307, China

    Li Liu & SiLong Wang

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  1. Li Liu
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Liu, L., Duan, Z., Xu, M. et al. Effect of monospecific and mixed Cunninghamia lanceolata plantations on microbial community and two functional genes involved in nitrogen cycling. Plant Soil 327, 413–428 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-009-0067-1

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