See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318907402 Impact of Land-use Change on Vertical Soil Bacterial Communities in Sabah Article in Microbial Ecology · August 2017 DOI: 10.1007/s00248-017-1043-6 CITATIONS READS 5 245 7 authors, including: HoeSeng Tin Kishneth Palaniveloo Apex Cosmeceutical Technology Sdn. Bhd. University of Malaya 9 PUBLICATIONS 188 CITATIONS 17 PUBLICATIONS 61 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Mathavan Vickneswaran Charles S VAIRAPPAN Dublin City University Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) 1 PUBLICATION 5 CITATIONS 166 PUBLICATIONS 1,956 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Soft Coral View project Laurencia View project All content following this page was uploaded by Kishneth Palaniveloo on 07 September 2017. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Microb Ecol DOI 10.1007/s00248-017-1043-6 SOIL MICROBIOLOGY Impact of Land-use Change on Vertical Soil Bacterial Communities in Sabah Hoe Seng Tin1 & Kishneth Palaniveloo1 & Junia Anilik1 & Mathavan Vickneswaran1 & Yukihiro Tashiro2,3 & Charles S. Vairappan1 & Kenji Sakai2,3 Received: 1 February 2017 /Accepted: 10 July 2017 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017 Abstract Decline in forest productivity due to forest conver- phylum level, Proteobacteria dominated MBOG but shifted sion is defining the Bornean landscape. Responses of bacterial to Actinobacteria in logged and plantation soil. Present find- communities due to land-use changes are vital and could de- ings also indicated that only FELF exhibited change in bacte- fine our understanding of ecosystem functions. This study rial communities along the soil depth, moving from the organ- reports the changes in bacterial community structure in organ- ic to the organic-mineral layer. Both layers of BWOP planta- ic soil (0–5 cm; O-Horizon) and organic-mineral soil (5– tion soils deviated from other forests’ soil in β-diversity anal- 15 cm; A-Horizon) across Maliau Basin Conservation Area ysis. To our knowledge, this is the first report on transitions of old growth forest (MBOG), Fragment E logged forest (FELF) bacterial community structures with different soil horizons in located in Kalabakan Forest Reserve to Benta Wawasan oil the tropical rainforest including Borneo, Sabah. Borneo trop- palm plantation (BWOP) using two-step PCR amplicon anal- ical soils form a large reservoir for soil bacteria and future ysis of bacteria DNA on Illumina Miseq next generation se- exploration is needed for fully understanding the diversity quencing. A total of 30 soil samples yielded 893,752-OTU structure and their bacterial functional properties. reads at ≥97% similarity from 5,446,512 good quality se- quences. Soil from BWOP plantation showed highest un- Keywords Soil microbiome . Oil palm plantation . Logged shared OTUs for organic (49.2%) and organic-mineral forest . Borneo . Tropical rain forest (50.9%) soil. MBOG soil showed a drop in unshared OTUs between organic (48.6%) and organic-mineral (33.9%). At Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article Introduction (doi:10.1007/s00248-017-1043-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Tropical rainforests regulate regional and global climate, pro- vide a wide range of ecosystem services, and support close to * Charles S. Vairappan 50% of described species. Borneo, the third largest island in the [email protected] world, has an average aboveground forest biomass that is 60% higher than the Amazonian average [1]. Based on IUCN infor- 1 Laboratory of Natural Products Chemistry, Institute for Tropical mation, Borneo harbours an estimated 14,423 plant and 1640 Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, vertebrate species, of which 28% are endemic and 534 species 88450 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia threatened with extinction. However, tropical rainforests are 2 Laboratory of Soil and Environmental Microbiology, Division of fast declining, particularly in Borneo, by 16.8 × 106 ha from Systems Bioengineering, Department of Biosciences and 1973 to 2010 due to logging, agricultural activities, and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Graduate School, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higasi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan ENSO-induced wildfires [2]. Rapid rates of forest conversion and degradation have prompted intergovernmental agreements 3 Laboratory of Microbial Environmental Protection, Tropical Microbiology Unit, Center for International Education and Research between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam to pro- of Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 tect and sustainably use the forests that remain in Borneo, via Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan Heart of Borneo Initiative. Tin H. S. et al. To date, 5.8 million ha of tropical forest in Borneo has and the organic-mineral soil layer (5–15 cm) (A-Horizon) across been converted for agriculture, especially for oil palm land-use gradients at species level [12]. (Elates guineensis) plantation because of the increasing global demand for cheaper sources of oil for food and biofuel [3, 4]. Thetotalarea foroilpalmcultivation inSoutheast Asia Materials and Methods has increased in excess of 87% over 2000–2015. Malaysia and Indonesia are the biggest global exporters of palm oil and Study Area The study was based in the Belian Plot of the their economies have become more reliant on this industry Maliau Basin Conservation Area (4° 44′ N, 116° 58′ E), which sincethereduction in timberyields. Timber extractionresult- is old growth forest dominated numerically by large ed in conversion of habitat from primary forest to secondary Dipterocarpaceae and has never been logged (referred to as forest, which was then further degraded-fragmented for ag- Maliau Basin old growth forest). Fragment E (FELF) was lo- ricultural purposes, primarily for the monocultures of oil cated in the SAFE project area, Kalabakan Forest Reserve (4° palm [5]. 41′ N, 117° 35′ E). The oil palm plantation plot (BWOP), Land-use change significantly affects the balance and sta- finally, was in Benta Wawasan Oil Palm Estate (10-year-old bility of biodiversity and ecosystem processes. It causes plantation), Luasong, Kalabakan (4° 38′ N, 117° 27′ E), Sabah, large-scale shifts in species distributions and extinctions, Malaysia. Fragment E has undergone two rounds of selective and the resultant altered predator-prey interactions are the logging since 1978 and presents a heterogeneous landscape primarydriversforchangesinkeybiogeochemicalprocesses with open canopy, a ground layer with gingers, vines, scrub, [3]. Lately, there has been an increase in effort to better un- and abundant small trees (referred to as logged forest). The oil derstand the changes in microbial communities, particularly palm plantation that we sampled was on land cleared and ter- bacterial communities that play an important role across this raced approximately 12 years ago and planted with young oil land-use change gradient [4]. Data of bacterial communities palm at the time. The palm trees are matured fruiting palms will facilitate our understanding of how human-driven (10 years old), planted at 100 trees per hectare with a partially changes in biodiversity alter biogeochemical processes and closed canopy (referred to as oil palm plantation). Algae and forest productivity. bryophyte covers can be observed in the plantation both on the Limited information of bacterial communities across the ground and trunk of the oil palm trees. The plantations are land change gradient substantially restricts our ability to mod- intensively managed with periodic application of large el and predict the response of tropical ecosystems to current amounts of chemicals and fertilizers. However, detailed infor- and future environmental change [6, 7]. Tropical forest eco- mation on quantities applied could not be obtained. All sites systems have gained recognition as biodiversity hot spots due were placed to minimise variation in elevation, with mean to their rich fauna, flora, and microflora and the complex elevation of all sample sites 450 m on slope type topography relationships among them. Such relationships define the very [13]. Physiochemical properties of soil collected are summa- existence of the forest types and dictate the physiochemical rized in Supplementary Table 1. properties of these ecosystems. Any effort to evaluate the impact of land-use and changes to Field Sampling Fieldwork was conducted from May to the natural forest ecosystem warrants an in-depth investigation June 2015. A total of 45 soil cores were collected from old across a gradient of forest types, such as primary forest, second- growth forest (15 soil cores), logged forest (15 soil cores), and ary forest/logged forest, and oil palm plantation. Approximately, oil palm plantation (15 soil cores). Soil cores were collected 80–90% of soil processes such as soil structure maintenance, along a 100-m transect, with 20-m distance apart (total five organic matter decomposition, nitrogen fixation, as well as inor- sampling points). Three soil cores are collected from a sam- ganic transformation are mediated by microorganisms [8]. pling point. Soil in each core is separated into organic layer Microbes are also regarded as the catalysts of these ecosystem (normally darker in colour and loose in texture—O-Horizon) processes and different microbes could play different roles. and