Responses of soil microbial community functional diversity to Camponotus herculeanus ant-hill disturbance in alpine meadows

doi:10.11686/cyxb2016066

Abstract

Abstract: To understand the function of the ants in the health and stability of an alpine meadow ecosystem we analyzed the effects of ant-hill disturbance on soil physical and chemical properties and microbial functional diversity in an alpine meadow using the Biolog-ECO microplate method. The results showed that while organic matter, total nitrogen, available nitrogen, available phosphorus and available potassium levels within the 0-10 cm soil depth were significantly higher than those in the 10-20 cm soil depth as expected (P<0.05), and that ant-hill disturbance had no significant effect on soil physicochemical properties (P>0.05). Ant-hill disturbance significantly improved soil microbial diversity index (specifically, values of Shannon-Weiner, Pielou, McIntosh and carbon utilization efficiency) and principal component analyses showed that ant-hill disturbance influenced soil microbial diversity and changed the microbial metabolism characteristics of soil microorganisms, to a status where carbohydrates, amino acids and carboxylic acid were the main carbon sources for the soil microbial community. Redundancy analyses indicated that metabolic rate and microbial functional diversity of soil microbial community was affected by soil nutrient levels. Therefore, the mining activities of the ants and associated accumulation of organic matter changed the soil microenvironment under the ant hills, resulting in changes to the soil microbial carbon source utilization and metabolism.

YANG You-Fang, ZI Hong-Biao, LIU Min, A DE Lu-Ji, CHEN Yan, WANG Chang-Ting. Responses of soil microbial community functional diversity to Camponotus herculeanus ant-hill disturbance in alpine meadows[J]. Acta Prataculturae Sinica, 2017, 26(1): 43-53.

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