Li Guixiang, Xu Guorui, Shen Congcong, Tang Yong, Zhang Yuxin, Ma Keming
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Sci China Life Sci. 2016 Nov;59(11):1177-1186. doi: 10.1007/s11427-016-0072-6. Epub 2016 Sep 5.
Above- and below-ground organisms are closely linked, but how elevational distribution pattern of soil microbes shifting across the treeline still remains unknown. Sampling of 140 plots with transect, we herein investigated soil bacterial distribution pattern from a temperate forest up to a subalpine meadow along an elevational gradient using Illumina sequencing. Our results revealed distinct elevational patterns of bacterial diversity above and below the treeline in responding to changes in soil conditions: a hollow elevational pattern in the forest (correlated with soil temperature, pH, and C:N ratio) and a significantly decreasing pattern in the meadow (correlated with soil pH, and available phosphorus). The bacterial community structure was also distinct between the forest and meadow, relating to soil pH in the forest and soil temperature in the meadow. Soil bacteria did not follow the distribution pattern of herb diversity, but bacterial community structure could be predicted by herb community composition. These results suggest that plant communities have an important influence on soil characteristics, and thus change the elevational distribution of soil bacteria. Our findings are useful for future assessments of climate change impacts on microbial community.
地上和地下生物紧密相连，但土壤微生物的海拔分布模式如何在树线上下发生变化仍不清楚。我们通过沿海拔梯度设置140个样地进行采样，利用Illumina测序技术研究了从温带森林到亚高山草甸土壤细菌的分布模式。我们的结果揭示了树线上下细菌多样性随土壤条件变化的不同海拔模式：森林中呈空心海拔模式（与土壤温度、pH值和碳氮比相关），草甸中呈显著下降模式（与土壤pH值和有效磷相关）。森林和草甸之间的细菌群落结构也不同，分别与森林中的土壤pH值和草甸中的土壤温度有关。土壤细菌的分布模式与草本植物多样性并不一致，但细菌群落结构可以通过草本植物群落组成来预测。这些结果表明，植物群落对土壤特性有重要影响，从而改变了土壤细菌的海拔分布。我们的研究结果有助于未来评估气候变化对微生物群落的影响。
