(2018). the Responses of Soil Microbial Community And
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Research Article ii FF o o r r e e s s t t doi: 10.3832/ifor2725-011 Biogeosciences and Forestry vol. 11, pp. 751-756 The responses of soil microbial community and enzyme activities of Phoebe zhennan cultivated under different soil moisture conditions to phosphorus addition Olusanya Abiodun Olatunji (1-2), The importance of conservation and ecological restoration of the rare and eco- Kaiwen Pan (1), nomically important tree Phoebe zhennan is increasingly recognized. To this (1-2) purpose, phosphorus (P) addition has been proposed to improve soil biological Akash Tariq , attributes and face the anticipated drought under climate change, though few Lin Zhang (1), studies have investigated its effect on the interaction between the soil micro- Xiaogang Wu (1), organisms and plant host, as well as on ecosystem productivity. We investi- (1) gated the effect of P addition on soil chemical properties, microbial communi- Xiaoming Sun , ties, and enzyme activities in a soil planted with P. zhennan under two levels (3) Hongyan Luo , of water treatments (optimum water and drought treatments). P additions had Dagang Song (1-2), no significant effect on microbial communities, dissolved organic nitrogen Ningning Li (3) (DON), pH and soil moisture (SM), though the available P (aP) increased. Com- pared with no P treatment, alkaline phosphate and β-fructofuranosidase activi- ties increased with P additions in the drought treatment. Drought decreased the total phospholipid-derived fatty acids (PLFAs), arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF), and fungi PLFAs compared to the well-watered. These findings indi- cated that P additions does not ameliorate the impact of drought on soil micro- bial communities and enzyme activities, except alkaline phosphate and β-fruc- tofuranosidase, and P may not be responsible for regulating biochemical pro- cesses essential for maintaining the fertility of soil planted with P. zhennan un- der drought conditions. It is hypothesized that the lack of effects of P addition on the majority of the microbial properties could be due to the soil mechanism employed by P. zhennan to tolerate harsh conditions. Keywords: Alkaline Phosphatase, Biomass, Drought, Enzymes, Microbial, Phoebe zhennan Introduction on soil chemical properties, microbial com- (1) Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Phoebe zhennan S. Lee (Family: Laura- munities, and enzyme activities has not Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & ceae; common name: Golden Phoebe), also been investigated yet. Moreover, P in soil is Ecological Restoration Biodiversity Conserva- known as Nanmu, is a well-known and rare subject to extensive physicochemical and tion Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, tree species valued for its high timber qual- biological reactions, with only a small com- Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Acad- ity and medicinal values (Hu et al. 2015). P. ponent of total soil P being in a form di- emy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041 (People’s zhennan is listed as a threatened species by rectly available for plant or microbial up- Republic of China); (2) University of Chinese the International Union for Conservation of take (Gao et al. 2016b). The seedling stage Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039 (Peo- Nature (IUCN), and it is protected nation- in forest restoration is critical for success- ple’s Republic of China); (3) College of Re- wide in China (Gao et al. 2016a). In the past ful establishment. The application of P sources and Environment, Southwest Univer- few years, there has been a decline in the might increase the tolerance of soil mi- sity, Chongqing 400715 (People’s Republic of acreage of P. zhennan (Cao et al. 2016). At crobes to soil water deficit (Nielsen et al. China) the moment, cultivation of P. zhennan has 2015, Huang et al. 2016) and subsequently gained attention for use in tree resource improve seedling performance after trans- @ Kaiwen Pan ([email protected]) conservation and ecological restoration plantation in the field. projects. A program focusing on the pro- Soil microorganisms are the critical link Received: Jan 09, 2018 - Accepted: Aug 27, tection and development of rare and pre- between the composition of above ground 2018 cious tree species resources is currently be- plant species and ecosystem functioning ing undertaken in Sichuan province (Hu et (You et al. 2014). Recent studies reported a Citation: Olatunji OA, Pan K, Tariq A, Zhang al. 2015). However, the increased aridity close two-way interaction between micro- L, Wu X, Sun X, Luo H, Song D, Li N (2018). due to climate change may have implica- bial communities and plant host as a vital The responses of soil microbial community tions for P. zhennan, either direct or indi- determinant of plant health and productiv- and enzyme activities of Phoebe zhennan rect. To face this problem, it is therefore ity (Sardans & Penuelas 2012, Rivest et al. cultivated under different soil moisture necessary to develop improved soil man- 2015, Gunina et al. 2017). While plants can conditions to phosphorus addition. iForest agement practices such as phosphorus (P) affect soil microbial communities via their 11: 751-756. – doi: 10.3832/ifor2725-011 application. Indeed, our previous study biomass, nutrient demand and water use [online 2018-11-15] suggested that P addition could improve efficiency, plant development can be drought tolerance of P. zhennan seedlings strongly influenced by soil microbial com- Communicated by: Tamir Klein through physio-biochemical adjustments munities (Sayer et al. 2016). This reciprocal (Tariq et al. 2017), though the impact of P exchange and interactions between plants © SISEF http://iforest.sisef.org/ 751 iForest 11: 751-756 Olatunji OA et al. - iForest 11: 751-756 y r and soil microbial communities underpins drought) in a soil planted with P. zhennan, loss after oven drying 10 g of moist soil to a t s forest soil health, ecosystem function, and and measured the response of soil chemi- constant weight at 105 °C for 24 h. The pH e ® r the ecosystem resilience after disturbance, cal properties, microbial communities, and was measured using a pH meter (PHS-25 , o which is fundamental in response to global enzyme activities. Our aim was to deter- INESA Instruments, China) at a ratio of 25 F change (Sayer et al. 2016). Although sev- mine if P addition affects the soil chemical ml deionized water to 10 g soil. Ammonia d + – n eral studies have reported that the cou- parameters, microbial community, and en- (NH4 -N) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3 -N) a pling between plant and soil microorgan- zyme activities of soil planted with P. zhen- were extracted with 50 ml of 2.0 M KCl and s e isms is vital for plant performance and nan under changes in soil water content, as determined on a flow injection auto-ana- c ® n maintenance of soil health (Wei et al. 2017), well as to ascertain if improved practices lyzer (AutoAnalyzer3 , Bran-Luebbe, Ger- e i both plants and soil microorganisms can be such as P application could buffer the soil many). The aP was extracted with 0.5 M c s affected by change in soil water content environment against drought conditions. NaHCO3 (pH 8.2) according to Olsen & o and nutrient availability, such as P (Sanaul- Sommers (1982) and measured colorimetri- e g lah et al. 2011, Cavagnaro 2016, Sun et al. Materials and methods cally by the molybdate-ascorbic acid meth- o i 2018). Moreover, the shifts in soil chemical od (Murphy & Riley 1962). Dissolved or- B properties and biological parameters can Experimental design ganic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen (DON) – provide an initial indication of soil quality This study was conducted at the Center were extracted from fresh moist soils with t s because of their sensitivity, rapid response for Ecological Studies, Chinese Academy of an addition of 2 M KCl at 20 °C and mea- e r to short-term disturbances, and capacity to Science, Sichuan Province, China (104° 04′ sured using a TOC/ TN analyzer (Multi N/C o ® F integrate many environmental factors (Ri- E, 30° 37′ N). The study area has a mild sub- 2100(S) , Analytik Jena AG, Germany). i chardson et al. 2011, Temesgen et al. 2016). tropical monsoon climate with a mean an- Changes in soil water content and nutri- nual temperature of 16.7 °C and precipita- Estimation of microbial communities ent availability can affect soil microbial tion of 945.6 mm. Soils used in this study Using phospholipid-derived fatty acids communities directly by altering their activ- were collected at 15 cm depth and thor- (PLFAs – Bossio & Scow 1998), soil micro- ity, but also indirectly through their influ- oughly mixed. The chemical properties of bial communities were assessed. Microbial ence on aboveground tree species (Huang the soil samples were 0.89 g kg-1 total lipids were extracted from frozen soil sam- et al. 2016, Sayer et al. 2016, Olatunji et al. phosphorus (TP), 27.6 mg kg-1 available ples corresponding to 8 g dry mass of soil, 2018). Several studies have reported that phosphorus (aP), 1.9 g kg-1 total nitrogen placed in 50 ml centrifuge tubes, and then drought can reduce the water potential of (TN), 26.7 g kg-1 total carbon (TC), and pH extracted with a mixture of chloroform the physical soil matrix, and worsen nutri- of 7.3. (CHCl3), methanol, and phosphate buffer ent deficiency by reducing its acquisition, A complete randomized experimental de- (1:2:0.8). The fatty acids in the lower chlo- mobility, and accessibility in the soil for sign was established consisting of two lev- roform phase were saponified and trans- plants and soil biota (Cavagnaro 2016, Sun els of water treatment (well-watered and formed into fatty acid methyl esters using et al. 2018). Therefore, it is anticipated that drought) and two levels of P application a strong acid methylation.