Carbon and Nitrogen Availability Drives Seasonal Variation in Soil Microbial Communities along an Elevation Gradient

作者：Xiaoling Xiong, Maokui Lyu, Cui Deng, Xiaojie Li, Yuming Lu, Weisheng Lin, Yongmeng Jiang, Jinsheng Xie · 发表于：Forests · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.3390/f13101657 · 被引用次数：31 · 研究领域：Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology、Polar Research and Ecology

Changes in soil abiotic and biotic properties can be powerful drivers of feedback between plants and soil microbial communities. However, the specific mechanisms by which seasonal changes in environmental factors shape soil microbial communities are not well understood. Here, we collected soil samples from three sites along an elevational gradient (200–1200 m) in subtropical forests with unvarying canopy vegetation. We used an elevation gradient with similar annual precipitation but a clear temperature gradient, and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) were measured to determine the seasonal variations in the composition of soil microbial communities in response to rising temperatures. Our results showed that the abundance of Gram-negative bacteria and total PLFAs were the lowest at low elevations in winter, and the ratio of Gram-positive to Gram-negative bacteria decreased with increasing elevation. However, the biomass of other microbial groups was the highest at medium elevations in summer, with the exception of actinomycetes species and fungi. Regardless of seasonal changes, soil fungal biomass tended to increase with increasing elevation. Moreover, in summer, microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) increased with increasing elevation, whereas an opposite trend was observed in winter. Redundancy analysis and structural equation modeling showed that the dissolved organic carbon in soil was the main factor affecting the microbial communities along the elevation gradient in winter...