Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Environ Microbiol. 2009 Dec;11(12):3045-62. doi: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.02008.x. Epub 2009 Jul 31.
Disturbances caused by timber harvesting have critical long-term effects on the forest soil microbiota and alter fundamental ecosystem services provided by these communities. This study assessed the effects of organic matter removal and soil compaction on microbial community structures in different soil horizons 13 years after timber harvesting at the long-term soil productivity site at Skulow Lake, British Columbia. A harvested stand was compared with an unmanaged forest stand. Ribosomal intergenic spacer profiles of bacteria, archaea and eukarya indicated significantly different community structures in the upper three soil horizons of the two stands, with differences decreasing with depth. Large-scale sequencing of the ribosomal intergenic spacers coupled to small-subunit ribosomal RNA genes allowed taxonomic identification of major microbial phylotypes affected by harvesting or varying among soil horizons. Actinobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes were the predominant phylotypes in the bacterial profiles, with the relative abundance of these groups highest in the unmanaged stand, particularly in the deeper soil horizons. Predominant eukaryal phylotypes were mainly assigned to known mycorrhizal and saprotrophic species of Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes. Harvesting affected Basidiomycetes to a minor degree but had stronger effects on some Ascomycetes. Archaeal profiles had low diversity with only a few predominant crenarchaeal phylotypes whose abundance appeared to increase with depth. Detection of these effects 13 years after harvesting may indicate a long-term change in processes mediated by the microbial community with important consequences for forest productivity. These effects warrant more comprehensive investigation of the effects of harvesting on the structure of forest soil microbial communities and the functional consequences.
采伐引起的干扰对森林土壤微生物群落具有重要的长期影响，并改变了这些群落提供的基本生态系统服务。本研究评估了有机物去除和土壤压实对不列颠哥伦比亚省斯库洛湖长期生产力研究站点采伐 13 年后不同土壤层中微生物群落结构的影响。将一个采伐林分与一个未管理的森林林分进行了比较。细菌、古菌和真核生物的核糖体基因间区（ITS）图谱表明，两个林分的上三个土壤层的群落结构存在显著差异，随着深度的增加，差异逐渐减小。核糖体基因间区（ITS）的大规模测序与小亚基核糖体 RNA 基因相结合，允许对受采伐影响或在土壤层之间变化的主要微生物类群进行分类鉴定。放线菌和芽单胞菌是细菌 ITS 图谱中的主要类群，这些类群的相对丰度在未管理林分中最高，特别是在较深的土壤层中。主要的真核生物类群主要分配给已知的担子菌和子囊菌的菌根和腐生种。采伐对担子菌的影响较小，但对某些子囊菌的影响较大。古菌 ITS 图谱多样性较低，只有少数主要的泉古菌类群，其丰度似乎随深度增加而增加。在采伐 13 年后检测到这些影响可能表明，由微生物群落介导的过程发生了长期变化，对森林生产力具有重要影响。这些影响需要更全面地调查采伐对森林土壤微生物群落结构的影响及其功能后果。
