Effect of Cultivated Pastures on Soil Bacterial Communities in the Karst Rocky Desertification Area

Abstract

Soil bacteria play an important role in regulating the process of vegetation restoration in karst ecosystems. However, the effects of vegetation restoration for different cultivated pastures on soil bacterial communities in the karst rocky desertification regions remain unclear. Therefore, we hypothesized that mixed pasture is the most effective for soil bacterial communities among different vegetation restorations. In this study, we systematically studied the soil properties and soil bacterial communities in four vegetation restoration modes [i.e., Dactylis glomerata pasture (DG), Lolium perenne pasture (LP), Lolium perenne + Trifolium repens mixed pasture (LT), and natural grassland (NG)] by using 16S rDNA Illumina sequencing, combined with six soil indicators and data models. We found that the vegetation restoration of cultivated pastures can improve the soil nutrient content compared with the natural grassland, especially LT treatment. LT treatment significantly increased the MBC content and Shannon index. The vegetation restoration of cultivated pastures significantly increased the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, but LT treatment significantly decreased the relative abundance of Acidobacteria. Soil pH and MBC significantly correlated with the alpha diversity of soil bacterial. Soil pH and SOC were the main factors that can affect the soil bacterial community. FAPROTAX analysis showed LT treatment significantly decreased the relative abundance of aerobic chemoheterotrophs. The results showed that the bacterial communities were highly beneficial to soil restoration in the LT treatment, and it confirmed our hypothesis. This finding provides a scientific reference for the restoration of degraded ecosystems in karst rocky desertification areas.