Characteristics of Soil Microbial Community Structure in Different Land Use Types of the Huanghe Alluvial Plain

Abstract

The Huanghe alluvial plain plays a crucial role in biodiversity conservation. However, its ecosystem has become sensitive and fragile due to long-term human disturbances. Enhancing the resilience of this ecosystem and promoting the sustainable use of land resources are key to addressing its ecological challenges. Soil microbial communities are vital to ecosystem functioning, and land use is a major human factor influencing their structure and diversity. Existing research on the Huanghe alluvial plain primarily focuses on soil physicochemical properties and moisture content, with relatively limited attention given to soil microorganisms. Therefore, this study, using the Wudi Tanyang Forest Farm in the Huanghe alluvial plain as a case study, employs high-throughput metagenomic sequencing to analyze the composition and diversity of soil bacteria, eukaryota, archaea, and virus communities in five different land use types (Tamarix chinensis forest, Fraxinus chinensis forest, farmland, wetland, and grassland). The results indicate that: (1) At the phylum level, the top three bacteria communities were Pseudomonadota, Acidobacteriota, and Actinomycetota; the top three in the eukaryota communities were Ascomycota, Mucoromycota, and Basidiomycotina; the top three in the archaea communities were Nitrososphaerota, Euryarchaeota, and Candidatus Thermoplasmatota; and the virus communities were dominated by Uroviricota; (2) The microbial community structure of the Tamarix chinensis forest and the Fraxinus chinensis forest was similar, and was significantly different from the other three land use types; (3) The land use type had a significant effect on the diversity of the soil microbial communities, with a higher diversity in the wetland and grassland soils; (4) The dominant species of the soil microbial communities under different land use types showed significant differences. This study provides theoretical support for land use optimization and sustainable soil management in the Huanghe alluvial plain region.

Keywords

• soil microorganisms
• land use types
• metagenomic sequencing
• community diversity