Responses of soil bacterial communities, enzyme activities, and nutrients to agricultural-to-natural ecosystem conversion in the Loess Plateau, China

Purpose Soil microbial communities play critical function during nutrient cycling. However, with the increasing nutrient input into terrestrial ecosystems from human activities, the responses of soil microorganisms to the aboveground vegetation across agricultural-to-natural succession stages are still poorly understand. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes of soil microbial communities in three typical succession stages (the cropland, the grassland, and the brushland, respectively). Materials and methods A field experiment was carried out in an ecological restoration region. Soil samples were collected from three succession stages (the cropland, the grassland, and the brushland) based on their well-dated successional chronosequence in July 2016. Illumina MiSeq sequencing was used to identify the bacterial community structures. The responses of soil bacterial communities and its relationships with soil physicochemical properties and enzyme activities were assessed. Results and discussion The results showed that soil nutrients (soil organic carbon (SOC), total N, and NH 4 + ) and enzyme activities (β-1,4-glucosidase and phosphatase) were significantly increased across the conversion from agricultural to natural ecosystem, and the enzyme activities were significantly affected by SOC and total N. It indicated that vegetation restoration greatly improved soil quality and nutrient cycling rates mediated by microbial metabolisms. Furthermore, there were no changes in soil bacterial community structures during the three vegetation succession stages, which implied the stability and adaption of microbial communities under the vegetation succession in semiarid climate. It should be noted that Firmicutes taxa were more sensitive than other taxa during natural vegetation recovery. Structural equation model (SEM) revealed that soil nutrients (soil organic matter (SOM) and total P), element stoichiometry (SOC:total P), and extracellular enzyme activities (urease and alkaline phosphatase) were dominant factors to shape the relative abundance of Firmicutes . Conclusions Firmicutes can be considered as bio-indicators to monitor soil quality and nutrient turnover during natural vegetation recovery. This study presents better understanding about the connections among soil nutrient cycling, enzyme activities, and soil bacterial communities during vegetation natural restoration, especially in typical ecological critical zone.