Distribution characteristics and factors influencing microbial communities in the core soils of a seawater intrusion area in Longkou City, China

Sang, Shilei; Dai, Heng; Hu, Bill X.; Huang, Zhenyu; Liu, Yujiao; Xu, Lijia

Distribution characteristics and factors influencing microbial communities in the core soils of a seawater intrusion area in Longkou City, China | Caractéristiques et facteurs de la distribution influençant les communautés microbiennes dans des carottes de sol d’une zone d’intrusion d’eau de mer dans la ville de Longkou, en Chine Características de la distribución y factores que influyen en las comunidades microbianas en los suelos de una zona de intrusión de agua de mar en la ciudad de Longkou, China 中国龙口市某海水入侵区核心土壤微生物群落分布特征及影响因素 Características da distribuição e dos fatores de influência nas comunidades microbianas em testemunhos de sondagem na área de cunha salina na cidade de Longkou, China

2022

Microbes live throughout the soil profile. Microbial communities in subsurface horizons are impacted by a saltwater–freshwater transition zone formed by seawater intrusion (SWI) in coastal regions. The main purpose of this study is to explore the changes in microbial communities within the soil profile because of SWI. The study characterizes the depth-dependent distributions of bacterial and archaeal communities through high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons by collecting surface soil and deep core samples at nine soil depths in Longkou City, China. The results showed that although microbial communities were considerably impacted by SWI in both horizontal and vertical domains, the extent of these effects was variable. The soil depth strongly influenced the microbial communities, and the microbial diversity and community structure were significantly different (p < 0.05) at various depths. Compared with SWI, soil depth was a greater influencing factor for microbial diversity and community structure. Furthermore, soil microbial community structure was closely related to the environmental conditions, among which the most significant environmental factors were soil depth, pH, organic carbon, and total nitrogen.

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