The response of the soil bacterial community and function to forest succession caused by forest disease

Forest succession is a key driver of plant communities and understanding succession is central to forest restoration. Currently, the information on the response of the microbial community to the forest succession process, however, is limited. In the present study, we investigated the dynamics of the soil bacterial community in three forest types undergoing succession caused by pine wilt disease, representing the initial pine forest, gradual mixed pine and broadleaved forest, and eventual broadleaved forest, using Illumina MiSeq coupled with Functional Annotation of Prokaryotic Taxa (FAPROTAX) analysis. The results showed that the soil pH, contents of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (TN) increased after the occurrence of initial succession and differed among the forest sites. The mixed pine forest had significantly higher bacteria biomass (p