Dataset Information

Structural and functional differentiation of bacterial communities in post-coal mining reclamation soils of South Africa: bioindicators of soil ecosystem restoration.

ABSTRACT: Soil microbial communities are suitable soil ecosystem health indicators due to their sensitivity to management practices and role in soil ecosystem processes. Presently, information on structural and functional differentiation of bacterial communities in post-coal mining reclamation soils of South Africa is sparse. Here, bacterial communities in three post-coal mining reclamation soils were investigated using community-level physiological profiling (CLPP), enzyme activities, and next-generation sequencing of 16S rRNA gene. Inferences were drawn in reference to adjacent unmined soils. CLPP-based species diversity and proportionality did not differ significantly (P?>?0.05) whereas activities of ?-glucosidase, urease and phosphatases were significantly (P??0.05), suggesting redundancy in bacterial community functions between reclamation and unmined soils. Silt content, bulk density, pH, electrical conductivity, Na and Ca significantly influenced soil bacterial communities. Overall, results indicate that bacterial community structure reflects underlying differences between soil ecosystems, and suggest the restoration of bacterial diversity and functions over chronological age in reclamation soils.

SUBMITTER: Ezeokoli OT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7000389 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Structural and functional differentiation of bacterial communities in post-coal mining reclamation soils of South Africa: bioindicators of soil ecosystem restoration.

Ezeokoli Obinna T OT Bezuidenhout Cornelius C CC Maboeta Mark S MS Khasa Damase P DP Adeleke Rasheed A RA

Scientific reports 20200204 1

Soil microbial communities are suitable soil ecosystem health indicators due to their sensitivity to management practices and role in soil ecosystem processes. Presently, information on structural and functional differentiation of bacterial communities in post-coal mining reclamation soils of South Africa is sparse. Here, bacterial communities in three post-coal mining reclamation soils were investigated using community-level physiological profiling (CLPP), enzyme activities, and next-generation ...[more]

PMID: 32019965

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Project description:Bacteria and fungi are important mediators of biogeochemical processes and play essential roles in the establishment of plant communities, which makes knowledge about their recovery after extreme disturbances valuable for understanding ecosystem development. However, broad ecological differences between bacterial and fungal organisms, such as growth rates, stress tolerance, and substrate utilization, suggest they could follow distinct trajectories and show contrasting dynamics during recovery. In this study, we analyzed both the intra-annual variability and decade-scale recovery of bacterial and fungal communities in a chronosequence of reclaimed mined soils using next-generation sequencing to quantify their abundance, richness, ?-diversity, taxonomic composition, and cooccurrence network properties. Bacterial communities shifted gradually, with overlapping ?-diversity patterns across chronosequence ages, while shifts in fungal communities were more distinct among different ages. In addition, the magnitude of intra-annual variability in bacterial ?-diversity was comparable to the changes across decades of chronosequence age, while fungal communities changed minimally across months. Finally, the complexity of bacterial cooccurrence networks increased with chronosequence age, while fungal networks did not show clear age-related trends. We hypothesize that these contrasting dynamics of bacteria and fungi in the chronosequence result from (i) higher growth rates for bacteria, leading to higher intra-annual variability; (ii) higher tolerance to environmental changes for fungi; and (iii) stronger influence of vegetation on fungal communities.IMPORTANCE Both bacteria and fungi play essential roles in ecosystem functions, and information about their recovery after extreme disturbances is important for understanding whole-ecosystem development. Given their many differences in phenotype, phylogeny, and life history, a comparison of different bacterial and fungal recovery patterns improves the understanding of how different components of the soil microbiota respond to ecosystem recovery. In this study, we highlight key differences between soil bacteria and fungi during the restoration of reclaimed mine soils in the form of long-term diversity patterns, intra-annual variability, and potential interaction networks. Cooccurrence networks revealed increasingly complex bacterial community interactions during recovery, in contrast to much simpler and more isolated fungal network patterns. This study compares bacterial and fungal cooccurrence networks and reveals cooccurrences persisting through successional ages.

Dataset Information

Structural and functional differentiation of bacterial communities in post-coal mining reclamation soils of South Africa: bioindicators of soil ecosystem restoration.

Publications

Structural and functional differentiation of bacterial communities in post-coal mining reclamation soils of South Africa: bioindicators of soil ecosystem restoration.

Similar Datasets

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