Effects of Ganoderma lucidum cultivation in forests on soil organic carbon pool and microbial community physiological profiles

Abstract

Non-timber forest products increase forests resource utilization efficiency and promote rural areas economic development. Ganoderma lucidum (Curtis) P. Karst. (Reishi) is a mushroom having great potential being cultivated as NFTPs. However, there is still a lack of effects about cultivating Reishi in forests on soil organic carbon (C) pool and microbial community, which are important for designing sustainable cultivating strategies. Therefore, this study sampled and analyzed soil from forests cultivated Reishi at 2, 4, and 6 years (LZ2, LZ4, and LZ6, respectively), and in reference natural evergreen broad-leaved forest (CK). Our results manifested that, compared with CK, LZ2 slightly increased total organic carbon (TOC), and significantly increased microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) content by 29.99% and 28.67%, respectively ( P < 0.05). Besides, compared with CK, LZ2 significantly increased the ratio of MBC/TOC and WSOC/TOC by 37.50% and 35.00%, respectively ( P < 0.05). In contrast, these parameters decreased in LZ4 and LZ6 slightly, compared with CK. Consequently, LZ2 had the highest average well-color development values and microbial functional diversity indexes, while these parameters declined in LZ4 and LZ6, compared with CK. As a result, microbial community functional structure in LZ2 was different from that in LZ4, and LZ6, while that in LZ4 and LZ6 showed similarity, according to the principal component analysis and PERMANOVA test.