Influence of management intensity and environmental conditions on microbiota in biological soil crust and crust-free soil habitats of temperate forests

Publication date: Available online 20 February 2020Source: Soil Biology and BiochemistryAuthor(s): Christopher Ngosong, Thomas Buse, Martin Ewald, Andreas Richter, Karin Glaser, Ingo Schöning, Liliane RuessAbstractThe microbiota in three distinct terrestrial habitats (biological soil crusts – BSC, crust-adhering soil beneath BSC – trans, and crust-free soil close to BSC – soil) was studied in 33 temperate forest stands differing in management intensity (ForMI). Specific lipid fractions and respective marker fatty acids were used to determine microbial biomass and community structure (phospholipid fatty acids – PLFA), energy reserves (neutral lipid fatty acids – NLFA), and community level lipid profiles (CLLP) of nematodes and enchytraeids. The density and diversity of nematode fauna were additionally determined morphologically. The highest total amounts of PLFA and NLFA occurred in the BSC, followed by soil and trans habitats, indicating stronger effects of habitats than forest management intensity. This corresponds to the distribution pattern of bacterial PLFA that dominated the soil microbiota. The highest nematode population density occurred in the BSC, followed by soil and trans. The BSC was dominated by bacterial feeders and omnivores, while plant feeding nematodes were most frequent in the crust-free soil habitat. The highest biomass of photoautotrophs also occurred in the BSC, followed by the crust-adhering and crust-free soil habitats. Redundancy analysis i...
Source: Soil Biology and Biochemistry - Category: Biology Source Type: research