title: An integrated study to analyze soil microbial community structure and metabolic potential in two forest types.
abstract: Soil microbial metabolic potential and ecosystem function have received little attention owing to difficulties in methodology. In this study, we selected natural mature forest and natural secondary forest and analyzed the soil microbial community and metabolic potential combing the high-throughput sequencing and GeoChip technologies. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA sequencing showed that one known archaeal phylum and 15 known bacterial phyla as well as unclassified phylotypes were presented in these forest soils, and Acidobacteria, Protecobacteria, and Actinobacteria were three of most abundant phyla. The detected microbial functional gene groups were related to different biogeochemical processes, including carbon degradation, carbon fixation, methane metabolism, nitrogen cycling, phosphorus utilization, sulfur cycling, etc. The Shannon index for detected functional gene probes was significantly higher (P<0.05) at natural secondary forest site. The regression analysis showed that a strong positive (P<0.05) correlation was existed between the soil microbial functional gene diversity and phylogenetic diversity. Mantel test showed that soil oxidizable organic carbon, soil total nitrogen and cellulose, glucanase, and amylase activities were significantly linked (P<0.05) to the relative abundance of corresponded functional gene groups. Variance partitioning analysis showed that a total of 81.58% of the variation in community structure was explained by soil chemical factors, soil temperature, and plant diversity. Therefore, the positive link of soil microbial structure and composition to functional activity related to ecosystem functioning was existed, and the natural secondary forest soil may occur the high microbial metabolic potential. Although the results can't directly reflect the actual microbial populations and functional activities, this study provides insight into the potential activity of the microbial community and associated feedback responses of the terrestrial ecosystem to environmental changes.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forestry Ecology, Environment and Protection, and the Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of State Forestry Administration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yuguang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forestry Ecology, Environment and Protection, and the Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of State Forestry Administration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China; School of Mineral Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forestry Ecology, Environment and Protection, and the Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of State Forestry Administration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America.
authors.forename: Caiyun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yunfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America; State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jizhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forestry Ecology, Environment and Protection, and the Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of State Forestry Administration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Diqiang
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D044822:Biodiversity; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D065928:Forests; D014644:Genetic Variation; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen
references.citation: Ecol Lett. 2010 May;13(5):564-75
references.pmid: 20337697
references.citation: Res Microbiol. 2010 Oct;161(8):635-42
references.pmid: 20599610
references.citation: ISME J. 2009 Mar;3(3):378-82
references.pmid: 19020558
references.citation: ISME J. 2007 May;1(1):67-77
references.pmid: 18043615
references.citation: Appl Environ Microbiol. 2011 Sep;77(17):6158-64
references.pmid: 21724890
references.citation: ISME J. 2012 Aug;6(8):1621-4
references.pmid: 22402401
references.citation: Nucleic Acids Res. 1996 Jul 1;24(13):2623-5
references.pmid: 8692708
references.citation: Microb Ecol. 2004 Oct;48(3):424-30
references.pmid: 15692862
references.citation: Appl Environ Microbiol. 2011 Feb;77(3):991-9
references.pmid: 21097602
references.citation: Ecol Lett. 2009 Dec;12(12):1405-19
references.pmid: 19849711
references.citation: Nucleic Acids Res. 2009 Jan;37(Database issue):D141-5
references.pmid: 19004872
references.citation: BMC Microbiol. 2013 Mar 29;13:72
references.pmid: 23537200
references.citation: ISME J. 2010 May;4(5):711-5
references.pmid: 20164861
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jan 17;103(3):626-31
references.pmid: 16407148
references.citation: Oecologia. 2004 Jan;138(2):275-84
references.pmid: 14614618
references.citation: PeerJ. 2013 Mar 05;1:e47
references.pmid: 23638384
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Mar 15;108 Suppl 1:4516-22
references.pmid: 20534432
references.citation: PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e59497
references.pmid: 23527207
references.citation: ISME J. 2010 Sep;4(9):1099-107
references.pmid: 20376100
references.citation: Annu Rev Microbiol. 2008;62:375-401
references.pmid: 18544040
references.citation: Appl Environ Microbiol. 2006 Mar;72(3):1719-28
references.pmid: 16517615
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Jun 3;105(22):7768-73
references.pmid: 18509054
references.citation: ISME J. 2012 May;6(5):1007-17
references.pmid: 22134642
references.citation: ISME J. 2007 Jun;1(2):163-79
references.pmid: 18043626
references.citation: Appl Environ Microbiol. 1996 Feb;62(2):316-22
references.pmid: 8593035
references.citation: ISME J. 2012 Feb;6(2):451-60
references.pmid: 21814288
references.citation: J Microbiol Methods. 2004 Aug;58(2):169-88
references.pmid: 15234515
references.citation: Science. 2008 May 23;320(5879):1039-43
references.pmid: 18497288
references.citation: ISME J. 2011 Mar;5(3):403-13
references.pmid: 20861922
references.citation: BMC Ecol. 2011 Nov 24;11:29
references.pmid: 22115365
references.citation: Science. 2013 Nov 1;342(6158):621-4
references.pmid: 24179225