Abstract
Desertified
land reclamation for the purposes of winegrape cultivation can
profoundly alter the properties of the underlying soil and the microbial
communities therein. Herein, we assessed the effects of such reclamation
of non-productive desert land on the soil microbial communities
associated with the resultant vineyards, and to identify key soil
properties related to these changes. Soil was collected from natural
desert land (DL) and from different reclaimed vineyard types: Cabernet
Sauvignon (CS), Merlot (M), Chardonnay (C), and Italian Riesling (IR).
High-throughput sequencing was used to assess microbial community
composition and diversity in these samples. Significant differences in
soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen, available nitrogen, available
phosphorus, and pH were detected when comparing soil from DL and
reclaimed lands. CS, M, C, and IR soils exhibited higher relativeActinobacteria , Proteobacteria, and Ascomycotaabundance, while DL soil exhibited higher relative Acidobacteriaand Mortierellomycota abundance. In total, 165 and 55 bacterial
and fungal amplicon sequence variants or operational taxonomic units
(ASVs/OTUs) were shared across land use types. Following reclamation,
soil bacteria ASVs/OTUs in CS, M, C, and IR soils rose to 2846, 3191,
7630, and 6373, respectively. Biomarkers of these different land use
types were successfully identified via an LDA Effect Size (LEfSe)
approach, while key soil properties including pH, SOC, and available
nitrogen were found to be associated with these changes in microbial
community structural composition following reclamation. As such, our
data indicate that viticulture in desertified regions can enhance soil
properties and microbial diversity,
thereby supporting sustainable land
use.