Effect of biocrusts on bacterial community composition at different soil depths in Mediterranean semi-arid ecosystems
Identifiers
Share
Metadata
Show full item recordAuthor/s
Miralles Mellado, Isabel; Soria Martínez, Rocío; Lucas Borja, Manuel Esteban; Soriano Rodríguez, Miguel; Ortega Pérez, RaúlDate
2020-09-01Abstract
This study analyzed the influence of biocrusts on the chemical properties and bacterial diversity and community composition in the underlying soils along a depth gradient (the biocrust (C1), middle (S2) and deep (S3) soil layers) in two semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystems. Organic carbon, pH, electric conductivity and calcium carbonate content were estimated by wet oxidation, potentiometrically (pHmeter), with a conductivity-meter and volumetrically with a Bernard calcimeter, respectively. Bacterial diversity and community composition were estimated by 16S rRNA gene high-throughput amplicon sequencing. Chemical properties in C1 were significantly different from the other soil layers, showing higher organic carbon content and lower pH (p < 0.05). The relative abundance of several bacterial taxa, such as Bryocella, Methylobacterium, Segitebacter and Actinomycetospora showed significant positive correlations with organic carbon (r = 0.53 to 0.75) and negative with pH (r = −0.72 to −0.84), ...
Palabra/s clave
Soil bacterial co-occurrence patterns
High-throughput sequencing
pH
Salinity
Soil organic carbon
Calcium carbonate content