Environmental Difference and Spatial Distance Affect the Fidelity of Variation Source of Microbial Community Structure in Air-Dried Soils

Air-dried soil archives are important for microbial ecology research, although the process of air-drying preservation inevitably destroys the original microbial information in soils. Only upon fully understanding the limitations of air-dried soil can it play a greater role. The value of air-dried so...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zhiying Guo, Yuanyuan Bao, Jie Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-03-01
Series:Microorganisms
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/10/4/672
_version_ 1797409980999008256
author Zhiying Guo
Yuanyuan Bao
Jie Liu
author_facet Zhiying Guo
Yuanyuan Bao
Jie Liu
author_sort Zhiying Guo
collection DOAJ
description Air-dried soil archives are important for microbial ecology research, although the process of air-drying preservation inevitably destroys the original microbial information in soils. Only upon fully understanding the limitations of air-dried soil can it play a greater role. The value of air-dried soil depends on the fidelity of microbial community structure information in the air-dried soil relative to that in fresh soil. To evaluate this, high-throughput sequencing was applied to investigate the microbial community of fresh soils and 227 days air-dried archives from typical farmland under a large spatial scale, and PERMANOVA was used to analyze the explanation proportion (EP) of the spatial factor on the microbial community structure in any paired-fresh or air-dried soils. The results show that for any paired soils, the value of EP ranged from 42.4% to 97.9% (<i>p</i> < 0.001). Importantly, taking fresh soil as a reference, the value of EP declined in air-dried soils (effect size <i>r</i> = 0.79, <i>p</i> < 0.001). Furthermore, the standardized difference in EP between fresh and air-dried soil (NDEP) was used to characterize the fidelity of variance source of microbial community structure in air-dried soils, and correlation tests showed that NDEP was negatively correlated with spatial distance (<i>r</i> = −0.21, <i>p</i> < 0.01) and with environmental difference (<i>r</i> = −0.37, <i>p</i> < 0.001). Further analyses show that larger NDEP was observed at a spatial distance <25 km or an environmental difference <0.58. Variance partitioning analysis showed that 28.0% of the variation in NDEP could be explained, with environmental difference constituting 14.0% and the interaction between the environmental difference and spatial distance constituting the remaining 14.0%. Soil texture was the most important factor for predicting NDEP, followed by soil pH and annual average temperature. This study not only emphasizes the possible decline in EP when using air-dried soils to reveal microbial community patterns, but also implies that air-dried soil is more suitable for addressing scientific questions under a large spatial scale or environmental differences.
first_indexed 2024-03-09T04:23:18Z
format Article
id doaj.art-d32ef8420f1a4b1a9291cc459403174b
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2076-2607
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-09T04:23:18Z
publishDate 2022-03-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Microorganisms
spelling doaj.art-d32ef8420f1a4b1a9291cc459403174b2023-12-03T13:44:31ZengMDPI AGMicroorganisms2076-26072022-03-0110467210.3390/microorganisms10040672Environmental Difference and Spatial Distance Affect the Fidelity of Variation Source of Microbial Community Structure in Air-Dried SoilsZhiying Guo0Yuanyuan Bao1Jie Liu2State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, ChinaAir-dried soil archives are important for microbial ecology research, although the process of air-drying preservation inevitably destroys the original microbial information in soils. Only upon fully understanding the limitations of air-dried soil can it play a greater role. The value of air-dried soil depends on the fidelity of microbial community structure information in the air-dried soil relative to that in fresh soil. To evaluate this, high-throughput sequencing was applied to investigate the microbial community of fresh soils and 227 days air-dried archives from typical farmland under a large spatial scale, and PERMANOVA was used to analyze the explanation proportion (EP) of the spatial factor on the microbial community structure in any paired-fresh or air-dried soils. The results show that for any paired soils, the value of EP ranged from 42.4% to 97.9% (<i>p</i> < 0.001). Importantly, taking fresh soil as a reference, the value of EP declined in air-dried soils (effect size <i>r</i> = 0.79, <i>p</i> < 0.001). Furthermore, the standardized difference in EP between fresh and air-dried soil (NDEP) was used to characterize the fidelity of variance source of microbial community structure in air-dried soils, and correlation tests showed that NDEP was negatively correlated with spatial distance (<i>r</i> = −0.21, <i>p</i> < 0.01) and with environmental difference (<i>r</i> = −0.37, <i>p</i> < 0.001). Further analyses show that larger NDEP was observed at a spatial distance <25 km or an environmental difference <0.58. Variance partitioning analysis showed that 28.0% of the variation in NDEP could be explained, with environmental difference constituting 14.0% and the interaction between the environmental difference and spatial distance constituting the remaining 14.0%. Soil texture was the most important factor for predicting NDEP, followed by soil pH and annual average temperature. This study not only emphasizes the possible decline in EP when using air-dried soils to reveal microbial community patterns, but also implies that air-dried soil is more suitable for addressing scientific questions under a large spatial scale or environmental differences.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/10/4/672soil dryingmicrobial ecologyspatial scale
spellingShingle Zhiying Guo
Yuanyuan Bao
Jie Liu
Environmental Difference and Spatial Distance Affect the Fidelity of Variation Source of Microbial Community Structure in Air-Dried Soils
Microorganisms
soil drying
microbial ecology
spatial scale
title Environmental Difference and Spatial Distance Affect the Fidelity of Variation Source of Microbial Community Structure in Air-Dried Soils
title_full Environmental Difference and Spatial Distance Affect the Fidelity of Variation Source of Microbial Community Structure in Air-Dried Soils
title_fullStr Environmental Difference and Spatial Distance Affect the Fidelity of Variation Source of Microbial Community Structure in Air-Dried Soils
title_full_unstemmed Environmental Difference and Spatial Distance Affect the Fidelity of Variation Source of Microbial Community Structure in Air-Dried Soils
title_short Environmental Difference and Spatial Distance Affect the Fidelity of Variation Source of Microbial Community Structure in Air-Dried Soils
title_sort environmental difference and spatial distance affect the fidelity of variation source of microbial community structure in air dried soils
topic soil drying
microbial ecology
spatial scale
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/10/4/672
work_keys_str_mv AT zhiyingguo environmentaldifferenceandspatialdistanceaffectthefidelityofvariationsourceofmicrobialcommunitystructureinairdriedsoils
AT yuanyuanbao environmentaldifferenceandspatialdistanceaffectthefidelityofvariationsourceofmicrobialcommunitystructureinairdriedsoils
AT jieliu environmentaldifferenceandspatialdistanceaffectthefidelityofvariationsourceofmicrobialcommunitystructureinairdriedsoils