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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (12): 16-32.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2025036

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Diversity of microorganisms in the rhizosphere soil of Kobresia humilis and their responses to environmental factors in the source region of the Yellow River

Hui-yun TAO1,2(), Run-yan YANG2, Yan-can LI2, Ya-peng LIU2, He-xing QI2()   

  1. 1.Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory for Adaptive Management of Alpine Grasslands Qinghai University,Xining 810000,China
    2.College of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry,Qinghai University,Xining 810016,China
  • Received:2025-02-13 Revised:2025-04-15 Online:2025-12-20 Published:2025-10-20
  • Contact: He-xing QI

Abstract:

In this study, we explored the relationships between environmental factors and microbial diversity/community structure in the rhizosphere soil of Kobresia humilis. Rhizosphere soil samples were collected from K. humilis growing at sites in the source area of the Yellow River within an altitude range of 3000-5000 m. Environmental factors were recorded at each site, and soil samples were analyzed to determine the composition of the rhizosphere soil microbial community. Illumina MiSeq sequencing and bioinformatics analysis were conducted to identify and classify the fungi and bacteria in the rhizosphere soil samples. The results show that the relationships between microbial diversity/community structure and environmental factors differed among five different altitudes in the source region of the Yellow River. Among the rhizosphere soils collected at different altitudes, the soil collected at 4027.0 m had the highest fungal diversity and the soil collected at 4932.1 m had the highest bacterial diversity, indicating that fungi and bacteria showed different responses to altitude. Soil microbial community structure differed with elevation: the abundance of Olpidiomycota in the fungal community increased with elevation, and Basidiobolomycota was only found at sampling sites higher than 4500 m. The taxa Nitrospirota, Bdellovibrionota, Elusimicrobiota, RCP2-54, and SAR324_cladeMarine_group_B showed increased abundance with increasing altitude, whereas the abundance of Fusobacteriota gradually declined with increasing altitude. The soil pH decreased with increasing altitude, but other soil physicochemical factors showed more complex changes with altitude. The pH, total phosphorus, available nitrogen, and organic carbon contents in soil collected at 4932.1 m were significantly different from those in soils collected at other altitudes (P<0.05). The total potassium, available phosphorus, and available potassium contents in soil collected at 4027.0 m were significantly different from those in soils collected at other altitudes (P<0.05). A redundancy analysis showed that available potassium and altitude were important factors affecting the composition and diversity of fungi, while the bacterial community was more strongly affected by pH, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, available nitrogen, organic carbon, and altitude. Among those factors, soil pH had the most significant effect on bacterial community structure. In this study, Illumina MiSeq sequencing technology was used to analyze soil microbial diversity and community structure in the rhizosphere of K. humilis at different altitudes, and the effects of environmental factors on the rhizosphere microbial community were determined. The results provide a theoretical basis for ecological protection at the soil microbe level in the source region of the Yellow River.

Key words: Kobresia humilis, rhizosphere soil microorganisms, microbial diversity, environmental factors, altitude