Long term repeated fire disturbance alters soil bacterial diversity but not the abundance in an Australian wet sclerophyll forest.

ABSTRACT: Effects of fire on biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystem are widely acknowledged, while few studies have focused on the bacterial community under the disturbance of long-term frequent prescribed fire. In this study, three treatments (burning every two years (B2), burning every four years (B4) and no burning (B0)) were applied for 38 years in an Australian wet sclerophyll forest. Results showed that bacterial alpha diversity (i.e. bacterial OTU) in the top soil (0-10 cm) was significantly higher in the B2 treatment compared with the B0 and B4 treatments. Non-metric multidimensional analysis (NMDS) of bacterial community showed clear separation of the soil bacterial community structure among different fire frequency regimes and between the depths. Different frequency fire did not h

SUBMITTER: Shen JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4726133 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature