Pedosphere 26(2): 226--234, 2016
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2016 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
| Effects of slope aspects on soil bacterial and arbuscular fungal communities in a boreal forest in China |
CHU Hai-Yan1, XIANG Xing-Jia1,4 , YANG Jian2, J. M. ADAMS3, ZHANG Kao-Ping1,4, LI Yun-Tao1,4 and SHI Yu1 |
1State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)
2State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164 (China)
3Department of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151 (Korea)
4University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China) |
| ABSTRACT |
| The effects of slope aspects on soil biogeochemical properties and plant communities in forested environments have been studied extensively; however, slope aspect influence on soil microbial communities remains largely unexamined, despite the central role of soil biota in ecosystem functioning. In this study, the communities of both soil bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) were investigated using tagged pyrosequencing for three types of slope aspects (south-facing aspect, north-facing aspect and flat area) in a boreal forest of the Greater Khingan Mountains, China. The bacterial and AMF community composition differed with slope aspects. Bacterial diversity was the lowest on the north-facing aspect, and AMF diversity was the lowest on the flat area. Aspects also had a significant impact on soil pH and available phosphorus (P) and shrubby biomass. Soil pH and understory shrub biomass were significantly correlated with bacterial communities, and soil available P and shrub biomass showed significant correlations with AMF communities. Our results suggested that slope aspects affected bacterial and AMF communities, mediated by aspect-induced changes in plant community and soil chemical properties (e.g., pH and available P), which improved the knowledge on the effects of forest slope aspects on aboveground and belowground communities. |
| Key Words: available P, plant communities, pyrosequencing, shrubby biomass, soil chemical properties, soil microbial communities, soil pH |
| Citation: Chu, H. Y., Xiang, X. J., Yang, J., Adams, J. M., Zhang, K. P., Li, Y. T. and Shi, Y. 2016. Effects of slope aspects on soil bacterial and arbuscular fungal communities in a boreal forest in China. Pedosphere. 26(2): 226-234. |
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