title: Temporal changes in soil bacterial and archaeal communities with different fertilizers in tea orchards.
abstract: It is important to understand the effects of temporal changes in microbial communities in the acidic soils of tea orchards with different fertilizers. A field experiment involving organic fertilizer (OF), chemical fertilizer (CF), and unfertilized control (CK) treatments was arranged to analyze the temporal changes in the bacterial and archaeal communities at bimonthly intervals based on the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) profiling. The abundances of total bacteria, total archaea, and selected functional genes (bacterial and archaeal amoA, bacterial narG, nirK, nirS, and nosZ) were determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The results indicate that the structures of bacterial and archaeal communities varied significantly with time and fertilization based on changes in the relative abundance of dominant T-RFs. The abundancy of the detected genes changed with time. The total bacteria, total archaea, and archaeal amoA were less abundant in July. The bacterial amoA and denitrifying genes were less abundant in September, except the nirK gene. The OF treatment increased the abundance of the observed genes, while the CF treatment had little influence on them. The soil temperature significantly affected the bacterial and archaeal community structures. The soil moisture was significantly correlated with the abundance of denitrifying genes. Of the soil chemical properties, soil organic carbon was the most important factor and was significantly correlated with the abundance of the detected genes, except the nirK gene. Overall, this study demonstrated the effects of both temporal alteration and organic fertilizer on the structures of microbial communities and the abundance of genes involved in the nitrogen cycle.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Protection, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310036, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shao-hui
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jing-ping
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ya-min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Ji-liang
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Pang
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005308:Fertilizers / Q000382:microbiology*; D059013:Microbial Consortia / Q000502:physiology; D012621:Seasons; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D013662:Tea / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000382:microbiology*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D005308:Fertilizers; D013662:Tea
keywords: Bacterial and archaeal communities; Fertilizer; Functional genes; Soil; Tea orchard; Temporal changes