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Divergent changes in microbial communities and nutrients upon forest floor humus layer of the sandy Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica plantation in Northeast of China
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  • Yawei Wei,
  • Mengge Wu,
  • Zhiping Cheng,
  • Chunlin Jing,
  • Lingyu Yan,
  • Deling Meng,
  • Wenxu Zhu,
  • Zhenju Chen
Yawei Wei
Shenyang Agricultural University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Mengge Wu
Shenyang Agricultural University
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Zhiping Cheng
Shenyang Agricultural University
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Chunlin Jing
Shenyang Agricultural University
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Lingyu Yan
Shenyang Agricultural University
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Deling Meng
Shenyang Agricultural University
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Wenxu Zhu
Shenyang Agricultural University
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Zhenju Chen
Shenyang Agricultural University
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Abstract

The sandy Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica plantation that as the boundary part of the Three North Shelterbelt Project in Northeast China has been well protected and prohibited disturbance more than ten years, and thus bring about lots of forest floor litter and then humus layer. While humus layer accumulation that could change the interface between litter and soil, its effects on litter and soil, and especially the interaction among them were still poorly understood. Hence, three different treatments that included remove all forest floor litter and humus, double forest floor litter and humus layer, and retain forest floor litter and humus original (no treatment) were conducted, and the physicochemistry properties and microbial communities were monitored. Results showed that the humus layer increased forest floor litter decomposition rate and its total carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus significantly, while it changed soil pH and nutrients differently and slightly. The abundances of bacterial groups at different taxonomic levels increased and while its diversity indexes decreased in litter when the humus layer existed, however, the fungi community both in litter and soil varied insignificantly. The humus layer not only increased remarkably the proportions of common OTUs between humus and litter, humus and soil compared to litter and soil both for fungi and bacteria, but also decreased the differences of the number of fungal and bacterial taxa statistics between litter and soil. It implied that the humus layer could act an important role in the recover process of degraded forest ecosystem.
29 Jan 2024Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
22 Feb 20241st Revision Received
22 Feb 2024Assigned to Editor
22 Feb 2024Submission Checks Completed
15 Mar 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned