Responsiveness of soil nitrogen fractions and bacterial communities to afforestation in the Loess Hilly Region (LHR) of China.

ABSTRACT: In the present paper, we investigated the effects of afforestation on nitrogen fractions and microbial communities. A total of 24 soil samples were collected from farmland (FL) and three afforested lands, namely Robinia pseudoacacia L (RP), Caragana korshinskii Kom (CK), and abandoned land (AL), which have been arable for the past 40 years. Quantitative PCR and Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes were used to analyze soil bacterial abundance, diversity, and composition. Additionally, soil nitrogen (N) stocks and fractions were estimated. The results showed that soil N stock, N fractions, and bacterial abundance and diversity increased following afforestation. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria were the dominant phyla of soil bacterial compositions. Overall, soil bacterial

SUBMITTER: Ren C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4917850 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature