Responses of soil microbial community to an altitudinal gradient of Quercus liaotungensis forest

Background/Question/Methods

This research took the Quercus liaotungensis forest soil in the Dongling Mountain of Beijing as the object, using chloroform fumigation-extraction procedures and the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, to investigate the variations of soil microbial community along an altitudinal gradient in the growing season.

Results/Conclusions

Results showed that: with the elevation increasing, the variations of soil microbial biomass carbon,nitrogen and microbial groups content were different but not significant, but the ratio of bacteria to fungi increased and the ratio of G⁺ to G^- decreased. Soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen as well as bacterial, fungal, G⁺, G^- content had significant positive correlations with soil water content, soil organic carbon and soil total nitrogen. Fungal content were positively related with soil carbon nitrogen ratio. Soil microbial community structure (bacteria/fungi and G⁺/G^-) are mainly influenced by soil water content and soil temperature. This means that the soil microbial community structure was sensitive to climate changes. With the worsen global warming and temperature increasing, the fungi and G⁺ will increase for the soil microbial community in the Q. liaotungensis forest at the warm temperate zone.