Urbanization-induced environmental changes strongly affect wetland soil bacterial community composition and diversity

Xinyu Yi; Chen Ning; Shuailong Feng; Haiqiang Gao; Jianlun Zhao; Juyang Liao; Yinghe Peng; Shuqing Zhao; Shuguang Liu

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac444f

Environmental Research Letters (Jan 2022)

Urbanization-induced environmental changes strongly affect wetland soil bacterial community composition and diversity

Xinyu Yi,
Chen Ning,
Shuailong Feng,
Haiqiang Gao,
Jianlun Zhao,
Juyang Liao,
Yinghe Peng,
Shuqing Zhao,
Shuguang Liu

Affiliations

Xinyu Yi: College of Life Science and Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, People’s Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Technology of Forestry & Ecology in Southern China, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, China; Hunan Changsha-zhuzhou-xiangtan city cluster national research station of forest ecosystem , Changsha, 410000, People’s Republic of China
Chen Ning: College of Life Science and Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, People’s Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Technology of Forestry & Ecology in Southern China, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, China
Shuailong Feng: College of Life Science and Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, People’s Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Technology of Forestry & Ecology in Southern China, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, China
Haiqiang Gao: ORCiD; College of Life Science and Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, People’s Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Technology of Forestry & Ecology in Southern China, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, China
Jianlun Zhao: College of Life Science and Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, People’s Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Technology of Forestry & Ecology in Southern China, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, China
Juyang Liao: Hunan Changsha-zhuzhou-xiangtan city cluster national research station of forest ecosystem , Changsha, 410000, People’s Republic of China; Hunan Botanical Garden , Changsha, 410000, People’s Republic of China
Yinghe Peng: Hunan Academy of Forestry , Changsha, 410000, People’s Republic of China
Shuqing Zhao: ORCiD; College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University , Beijing, 100871, People’s Republic of China
Shuguang Liu: College of Life Science and Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, People’s Republic of China; National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Technology of Forestry & Ecology in Southern China, Central South University of Forestry and Technology , Changsha, 410004, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac444f
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 17, no. 1
p. 014027

Abstract

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Soil microbial communities potentially serve as indicators for their responses to changes in various ecosystems at scales from a region to the globe. However, changes in wetland soil bacterial communities and how they are related to urbanization intensities remains poorly understood. Here, we collected 60 soil samples along urbanization intensity gradients from 20 wetlands. We measured a range of environmental factors and characterized bacterial communities structure using 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) gene amplicon sequencing that targeted the V4-V5 region. Our results revealed the dominant soil bacterial phyla included Proteobacteria (39.3%), Acidobacteria (21.4%) and Chloroflexi (12.3%) in the wetlands, and showed a significant divergence of composition in intensive urbanization area (UI_4) than other places. A critical ‘threshold’ exists in the soil bacterial diversity, demonstrating different patterns: a gradual increase in the areas of low-to-intermediate disturbances but a significant decrease in highly urbanized areas where metabolic functions were significantly strong. Additionally, soil pH, total phosphorus (TP), available phosphorus (AP) and ammonia nitrogen (NH _4 ^+ -N) made a significant contribution to variations in bacterial communities, explaining 49.6%, 35.1%, 26.2% and 30.7% of the total variance, respectively. pH and NH _4 ^+ -N were identified as the main environmental drivers to determine bacterial community structure and diversity in the urban wetlands. Our results highlight collective changes in multiple environmental variables induced by urbanization rather than by the proportion of impervious surface area (ISA), which were potentially attributed to the spatial heterogeneity along different urbanization gradients.

Published in Environmental Research Letters

ISSN: 1748-9326 (Online)
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Technology: Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering; Geography. Anthropology. Recreation: Environmental sciences; Science: Physics
Website: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1748-9326

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