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Soil physicochemical properties drive the variation in soil microbial communities along a forest successional series in a degraded wetland in northeastern China
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  • Xin Sui,
  • Rong Zhang,
  • Beat Frey,
  • Nan Xu,
  • Hongwei Ni,
  • Maihe Li
Xin Sui
Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences Institute of Natural Resources and Ecology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Rong Zhang
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Beat Frey
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
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Hongwei Ni
Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences
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Maihe Li
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
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Abstract

The Sanjiang Plain is the biggest freshwater wetland locating within northeastern China. Due to climate change and human activities, that wetland has degraded to a successional gradient from the original flooded wetland to dry shrub vegetation and a forest area with lower ground water level, resulting in changes in soil microbiologic structure and functions. The present study investigated the microbial diversity and community structure in relation to soil properties along this gradient. The soil physic-chemical properties changed significantly with degradation. The Shannon variety of soil fungi as well as bacteria varied significantly with successional stage (both P < 0.05). The community structures of soil bacteria and fungi in the early successional stages (i.e., the wetland) were significantly structured via total phosphorus, available nitrogen and total nitrogen concentrations in soils, while those in the later successional stages (i.e., forests) were significantly structured by soil organic carbon, soil pH and available phosphorus concentrations. Our results indicated that variations in the soil environment affected soil microbial communities along a successional gradient from wetland to forests are mainly. These outcomes indicate that above ground plant composition is a forceful determinant of the structure as well as functions of bacterial and fungal communities, might finally causing substantial alterations in ecosystem activity.
02 Mar 2020Submitted to Ecology and Evolution
04 Mar 2020Submission Checks Completed
04 Mar 2020Assigned to Editor
05 Mar 2020Reviewer(s) Assigned
12 Mar 2020Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
24 Mar 2020Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
23 Jun 20201st Revision Received
23 Jun 2020Assigned to Editor
23 Jun 2020Submission Checks Completed
23 Jun 2020Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
06 Jul 2020Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
20 Aug 20202nd Revision Received
20 Aug 2020Submission Checks Completed
20 Aug 2020Assigned to Editor
20 Aug 2020Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
22 Dec 2020Editorial Decision: Accept