Steven Blaire, Phillips Michala L, Belnap Jayne, Gallegos-Graves La Verne, Kuske Cheryl R, Reed Sasha C
Department of Environmental Sciences, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, CT, United States.
United States Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Moab, UT, United States.
Front Microbiol. 2021 Apr 20;12:648455. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.648455. eCollection 2021.
Dryland ecosystems are sensitive to perturbations and generally slow to recover post disturbance. The microorganisms residing in dryland soils are especially important as they contribute to soil structure and nutrient cycling. Disturbance can have particularly strong effects on dryland soil structure and function, yet the natural resistance and recovery of the microbial components of dryland soils has not been well documented. In this study, the recovery of surface soil bacterial communities from multiple physical and environmental disturbances is assessed. Samples were collected from three field sites in the vicinity of Moab, UT, United States, 6 to 7 years after physical and climate disturbance manipulations had been terminated, allowing for the assessment of community recovery. Additionally, samples were collected in a transect that included three habitat patches: the canopy zone soils under the dominant shrubs, the interspace soils that are colonized by biological soil crusts, and edge soils at the plot borders. Field site and habitat patch were significant factors structuring the bacterial communities, illustrating that sites and habitats harbored unique soil microbiomes. Across the different sites and disturbance treatments, there was evidence of significant bacterial community recovery, as bacterial biomass and diversity were not significantly different than control plots. There was, however, a small number of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence variants that distinguished particular treatments, suggesting that legacy effects of the disturbances still remained. Taken together, these data suggest that dryland bacterial communities may possess a previously unappreciated potential to recover within years of the original disturbance.
旱地生态系统对干扰很敏感，通常在受到干扰后恢复缓慢。旱地土壤中的微生物尤为重要，因为它们有助于土壤结构和养分循环。干扰对旱地土壤结构和功能可能产生特别强烈的影响，但旱地土壤微生物成分的自然抗性和恢复情况尚未得到充分记录。在本研究中，评估了多种物理和环境干扰后表层土壤细菌群落的恢复情况。在美国犹他州摩押附近的三个野外地点，在物理和气候干扰操作结束6至7年后采集样本，以便评估群落恢复情况。此外，在一个样带中采集样本，该样带包括三个栖息地斑块：优势灌木下的冠层土壤、被生物土壤结皮定殖的间隙土壤以及样地边界的边缘土壤。野外地点和栖息地斑块是构建细菌群落的重要因素，表明不同地点和栖息地拥有独特的土壤微生物群落。在不同地点和干扰处理中，有证据表明细菌群落有显著恢复，因为细菌生物量和多样性与对照样地没有显著差异。然而，有少数16S rRNA基因扩增子序列变体区分了特定处理，这表明干扰的遗留效应仍然存在。综合来看，这些数据表明旱地细菌群落在原始干扰后的几年内可能具有此前未被认识到的恢复潜力。
