Effects of precipitation changes on soil bacterial community composition and diversity in the Junggar desert of Xinjiang, China

PeerJ

article

Ke Wu¹  Wenxuan Xu¹  Weikang Yang¹ 

[1] CAS Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresource in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography;Mori Wildlife Ecological Monitoring and Experimentation Station, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences;University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

关键词: Precipitation variation;    Soil bacterial diversity;    Drought;    Junggar desert;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.8433

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Variation in precipitation can markedly affect the structure and function of soil microbial communities, especially in arid areas which are limited by water resources. Therefore, it is critical to understand how soil bacterial community composition and diversity will respond to variation in precipitation. In this study, we examined the soil bacterial community structure and diversity between five precipitation treatments (60% decrease, 30% decrease, control, 30% increase and 60% increase in precipitation) in the same arid site, in the Junggar desert of Xinjiang, northern China. The dominant bacterial phyla, present at similar frequencies in plots with different precipitation levels, were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria and Chloroflexi. The Shannon-Wiener and Chao1 indices of soil bacterial α-diversity were both positively correlated with plant diversity. Our results indicated that (1) extreme drought significantly decreased bacterial abundance and diversity compared with increased precipitation; (2) variation in precipitation did not change the dominant components of the bacterial communities; and (3) soil pH and total nitrogen concentration were the key factors affecting soil bacterial composition in the Junggar desert.

【 授权许可】

CC BY