TY - JOUR

T1 - Variations in Soil Nutrient Dynamics and Bacterial Communities After the Conversion of Forests to Long-Term Tea Monoculture Systems

AU - Gui, Heng

AU - Fan, Lichao

AU - Wang, Donghui

AU - Yan, Peng

AU - Li, Xin

AU - Pang, Yinghua

AU - Zhang, Liping

AU - Zamanian, Kazem

AU - Shi, Lingling

AU - Xu, Jianchu

AU - Han, Wenyan

N1 - Funding information: This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFE0107500) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC grant no. 32001296). KZ would like to thank the support from the Research Fund for International Young Scientists of National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 42050410320). HG would also like to thank the support from the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS, China (grant no. 2022396).

PY - 2022/6/24

Y1 - 2022/6/24

N2 - The soil microbial community is a key indicator to evaluate the soil health and productivities in agricultural ecosystems. Monoculture and conversions of forests to tea plantations have been widely applied in tea plantation globally, but long-term monoculture of tea plantation could lead to soil degradation and yield decline. Understanding how long-term monoculture systems influence the soil health and ecosystem functions in tea plantation is of great importance for soil environment management. In this study, through the comparison of three independent tea plantations across eastern China composed of varying stand ages (from 3 to 90 years after conversion from forest), we found that long-term tea monoculture led to significant increases in soil total organic carbon (TOC) and microbial nitrogen (MBN). Additionally, the structure, function, and co-occurrence network of soil bacterial communities were investigated by pyrosequencing 16S rRNA genes. The pyrosequencing analysis revealed that the structures and functions of soil bacterial communities were significantly affected by different stand ages, but sampling sites and land-use conversion (from forest to tea plantation) had stronger effects than stand age on the diversity and structure of soil bacterial communities. Soil bacterial diversity can be improved with increasing stand ages in tea plantation. Further RDA analysis revealed that the C and N availability improvement in tea plantation soils led to the variation of structure and function in soil bacterial communities. Moreover, co-occurrence network analysis of soil bacterial communities also demonstrated that interactions among soil bacteria taxa were strengthened with increasing stand age. Our findings suggest that long-term monoculture with proper managements could be beneficial to soil ecosystems by increasing the C and N content and strengthening bacterial associations in tea plantations. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the impact of land-use change and long-term monoculture stand age on soil environments in tea plantation.

AB - The soil microbial community is a key indicator to evaluate the soil health and productivities in agricultural ecosystems. Monoculture and conversions of forests to tea plantations have been widely applied in tea plantation globally, but long-term monoculture of tea plantation could lead to soil degradation and yield decline. Understanding how long-term monoculture systems influence the soil health and ecosystem functions in tea plantation is of great importance for soil environment management. In this study, through the comparison of three independent tea plantations across eastern China composed of varying stand ages (from 3 to 90 years after conversion from forest), we found that long-term tea monoculture led to significant increases in soil total organic carbon (TOC) and microbial nitrogen (MBN). Additionally, the structure, function, and co-occurrence network of soil bacterial communities were investigated by pyrosequencing 16S rRNA genes. The pyrosequencing analysis revealed that the structures and functions of soil bacterial communities were significantly affected by different stand ages, but sampling sites and land-use conversion (from forest to tea plantation) had stronger effects than stand age on the diversity and structure of soil bacterial communities. Soil bacterial diversity can be improved with increasing stand ages in tea plantation. Further RDA analysis revealed that the C and N availability improvement in tea plantation soils led to the variation of structure and function in soil bacterial communities. Moreover, co-occurrence network analysis of soil bacterial communities also demonstrated that interactions among soil bacteria taxa were strengthened with increasing stand age. Our findings suggest that long-term monoculture with proper managements could be beneficial to soil ecosystems by increasing the C and N content and strengthening bacterial associations in tea plantations. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the impact of land-use change and long-term monoculture stand age on soil environments in tea plantation.

KW - co-occurrence network

KW - monoculture system

KW - nutrient availability

KW - pyrosequencing

KW - tea production

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134010821&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/fmicb.2022.896530

DO - 10.3389/fmicb.2022.896530

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85134010821

VL - 13

JO - Frontiers in microbiology

JF - Frontiers in microbiology

SN - 1664-302X

M1 - 896530

ER -