Qiao Haonan, Zeng Qingchao, Martin Francis, Wang Qi
College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
Institute of Education, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Front Microbiol. 2025 May 29;16:1558906. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1558906. eCollection 2025.
Microbial communities residing in forest soils play crucial roles in decomposing organic matter and recycling nutrients, making these ecosystems one of the most diverse habitats on Earth. However, the composition and function of these complex and diverse microbiomes across different soil layers remain largely unknown. In this study, we collected soil samples from various layers and analysed the bacterial and fungal community compositions in experimental forest ecosystems using sequencing techniques. Our findings revealed that the soil layer was the primary factor influencing microbial communities, whereas sampling season had only a marginal effect. The most prevalent bacterial phyla and fungal classes were Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Armatimonadetes, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Agaricomycetes. Owing to the heterogeneity of the soil layer environment, we observed distinct patterns in the bacterial and fungal microbiomes across different layers. Moreover, the soil layer affected the network complexity, with fungi exhibiting higher complexity in the upper layer, whereas bacteria showed the opposite trend. Additionally, the dominant bacterial and fungal taxa across all soil layers belonged predominantly to Acidobacteria and Agaricomycetes, respectively. These findings underscore the significance of soil layers in shaping soil microbial communities and highlight the composition and co-occurrence patterns of the microbial communities within these layers.
森林土壤中的微生物群落对于分解有机物和循环养分起着至关重要的作用,使这些生态系统成为地球上最多样化的栖息地之一。然而,不同土壤层中这些复杂多样的微生物组的组成和功能在很大程度上仍然未知。在本研究中,我们从不同土层采集了土壤样本,并使用测序技术分析了实验森林生态系统中的细菌和真菌群落组成。我们的研究结果表明,土壤层是影响微生物群落的主要因素,而采样季节的影响微乎其微。最普遍的细菌门和真菌纲分别是酸杆菌门、放线菌门、装甲菌门、拟杆菌门、厚壁菌门、浮霉菌门、变形菌门、疣微菌门和伞菌纲。由于土壤层环境的异质性,我们在不同土层的细菌和真菌微生物组中观察到了不同的模式。此外,土壤层影响了网络复杂性,真菌在上层表现出更高的复杂性,而细菌则呈现相反的趋势。此外,所有土壤层中占主导地位的细菌和真菌类群分别主要属于酸杆菌门和伞菌纲。这些发现强调了土壤层在塑造土壤微生物群落方面的重要性,并突出了这些土层内微生物群落的组成和共生模式。