Forest management positively reshapes the phyllosphere bacterial community and improves community stability

This study provides new evidence of positive forest management effects on the phyllosphere microbiome after extreme drought, from the perspectives of community diversity, structure, network inference, keystone species, and assembly processes. In managed Qinghai spruce forest, the α-diversity of the phyllosphere bacterial communities increased, whereas the β-diversity decreased. In addition, the phyllosphere bacterial community became more stable and resistant, yet less complex, following forest management. Keystone species inferred from a bacterial network also changed under forest management. Furthermore, forest management mediated changes in community assembly processes, intensifying the influence of determinacy, while diminishing that of stochasticity. These findings support the hypothesis that management can re-assemble the phyllosphere bacterial community, enhance community stability, and ultimately improve tree growth. Overall, the study highlights the importance of forest management on the phyllosphere microbiome and furnishes new insights into forest conservation from the perspective of managing microbial processes and effects.PMID:38603812 | DOI:10.1016/j.envint.2024.108611

Source: Environment International - April 11, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Yunshi Li Ling Jin Minghui Wu Bo Wang Na Qu Huaizhe Zhou Tuo Chen Guangxiu Liu Ming Yue Gaosen Zhang Source Type: research