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Phosphorus Coupled with High Nitrogen Addition Exerts a Great Influence on Soil Bacterial Community in a Semiarid Grassland

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Abstract

Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) addition, either individually or in combination, has been demonstrated to enhance plant productivity in grassland ecosystems. Soil bacterial community, which is the driver of litter decomposition and nutrient cycling, is assumed to control responses of terrestrial ecosystem structure and function to N and P addition. Using a high-throughput Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform, we conducted a 9-year field experiment of N (0, 5, 10, and 20 g N m-2 yr-1) and P (0 and 10 g P m-2 yr-1) additions in the Inner Mongolian steppes to elucidate long-term effects of N and P addition on soil bacterial richness, diversity and composition. We found that N addition reduced the relative abundance of Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Nitrospirae, while increased that of Bacteroides. The results showed that the bacterial biomarker was enriched in P addition treatments, either individually or combined with N addition. Both N and P addition altered the bacterial community structure, while only N addition greatly decreased bacterial richness and diversity. More importantly, we showed that all of these effects were most significant in N3P treatment (20 g N m-2 yr-1 and 10 g P m-2 yr-1), implying that P coupled with a high-level N addition exerted a great influence on soil bacterial community. Structural equation models revealed that N and P addition had a great direct effect on soil bacterial community and an indirect effect on it mainly by changing the litter biomass. Our findings highlighted that severe niche differentiation was induced by P along with a high-level N, further emphasizing the importance of simultaneously evaluating response of soil bacterial community to N and P addition, especially in the context of increasing anthropogenic nutrient additions.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Key Science and Technology Program of Inner Mongolia (2021ZD001505), National Natural Science Foundation of China (32071845), Class A Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA23060404).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Yulin Li, Hongling Yang, Yongzhong Su, Xiangwen Gong, Bo Yao & Li Cheng

  2. Naiman Desertification Research Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tongliao, 028300, China

    Yulin Li, Hongling Yang, Yongzhong Su, Bo Yao & Li Cheng

Authors
  1. Yulin Li
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  2. Hongling Yang
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  3. Yongzhong Su
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  4. Xiangwen Gong
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  5. Bo Yao
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  6. Li Cheng
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Yulin Li, Hongling Yang and Yongzhong Su; Methodology: Hongling Yang; Writing-original draft preparation: Hongling Yang; Writing-review and editing: Xiangwen Gong, Bo Yao, and Li Cheng. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yulin Li or Hongling Yang.

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Li, Y., Yang, H., Su, Y. et al. Phosphorus Coupled with High Nitrogen Addition Exerts a Great Influence on Soil Bacterial Community in a Semiarid Grassland. Microb Ecol 86, 2993–3002 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-023-02297-5

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