Long-term nickel exposure altered the bacterial community composition but not diversity in two contrasting agricultural soils.
Nickel pollution imposes deleterious effects on soil ecosystem. The responses of soil microorganisms to long-term nickel pollution under field conditions remain largely unknown. Here, we used high-throughput sequencing to elucidate the impacts of long-term nickel pollution on soil bacterial communities in two contrasting agricultural soils. Our results found that the soil microbial biomass carbon consistently decreased along the nickel gradients in both soils. Nickel pollution selectively favored or impeded the prevalence of several dominant bacterial guilds, in particular, Actinobacteria showed tolerance, while Acidobacteria and Planctomycetes displayed sensitivity. Despite the apparent shifts in the bacterial community composition, no clear tendency in the bacterial diversity and abundance was identified along the nickel gradients in either soil. Collectively, we provide evidence that long-term nickel pollution shifted the soil bacterial communities, resulting in the decrease of microbial biomass although the bacterial diversity was not significantly changed.
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China.
Jing
J
Li
Hang-Wei
HW
Hu
Yi-Bing
YB
Ma
Jun-Tao
JT
Wang
Yu-Rong
YR
Liu
Ji-Zheng
JZ
He
D000383:Agriculture; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D044822:Biodiversity; D018533:Biomass; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D009532:Nickel / Q000633:toxicity*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012987:Soil; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D009532:Nickel