The Impact of Viticulture on Soil Characteristics and Microbial Communities in the Ningxia Region of Northwest China

Abstract

Winegrape cultivation has become increasingly common throughout northwest China over the past 20 years, and such viticulture can profoundly impact the properties of the utilized soil and the associated soil microbial communities. To explore these effects in the present study, samples of soil were collected from control desert soil and from vineyards planted in different years: Cabernet Sauvignon (CS, 2014), Merlot (M, 2012), and Italian Riesling (IR, 2008). The properties of this soil and the microbial communities therein were assessed through a series of physicochemical, enzymatic, and high-throughput sequencing analyses. Compared to the control soil, respective 1033.06 U/g, 398.28 U/g, and 240.56 U/g increases in alkaline phosphatase activity levels were observed in the CS, M, and IR soil samples. Stable soil bacterial richness was observed in the control, CS, and M samples, but decreased in the 11-years old IR soil, whereas no noticeable changes in soil fungi were observed across these samples. The network analyses highlighted correlations among soil microbes, and soil organic carbon and microbial biomass carbon were found to strongly influence variability in these soil microbial communities. Overall, these findings thus provide strong evidence that the prolonged monoculture of winegrapes can contribute to the deterioration of soil quality.