title: Safe-site effects on rhizosphere bacterial communities in a high-altitude alpine environment.
abstract: The rhizosphere effect on bacterial communities associated with three floristic communities (RW, FI, and M sites) which differed for the developmental stages was studied in a high-altitude alpine ecosystem. RW site was an early developmental stage, FI was an intermediate stage, M was a later more matured stage. The N and C contents in the soils confirmed a different developmental stage with a kind of gradient from the unvegetated bare soil (BS) site through RW, FI up to M site. The floristic communities were composed of 21 pioneer plants belonging to 14 species. Automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis showed different bacterial genetic structures per each floristic consortium which differed also from the BS site. When plants of the same species occurred within the same site, almost all their bacterial communities clustered together exhibiting a plant species effect. Unifrac significance value (P < 0.05) on 16S rRNA gene diversity revealed significant differences (P < 0.05) between BS site and the vegetated sites with a weak similarity to the RW site. The intermediate plant colonization stage FI did not differ significantly from the RW and the M vegetated sites. These results pointed out the effect of different floristic communities rhizospheres on their soil bacterial communities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS), University of Milan, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0258-2134
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ciccazzo
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Piazza Università 5, 39100 Bolzano, Italy.
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0726-5290
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.affiliation: Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS), University of Milan, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7461-7949
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rolli
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Piazza Università 5, 39100 Bolzano, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zerbe
authors.affiliation: Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS), University of Milan, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0947-925X
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Daffonchio
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Piazza Università 5, 39100 Bolzano, Italy.
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1773-6618
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brusetti
mesh_terms: D000531:Altitude; D044822:Biodiversity; D017753:Ecosystem; D010802:Phylogeny; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics*; D058441:Rhizosphere; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S