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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2021, Vol. 13 Issue (3): 239-256    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-021-0061-x
Research article     
Snowpack shifts cyanobacterial community in biological soil crusts
ZHANG Bingchang1,2, ZHANG Yongqing1, ZHOU Xiaobing2, LI Xiangzhen3,*(), ZHANG Yuanming2,*()
1Geographical Science College, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen 041004, China
2State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
3Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil Environmental Health and Regulation, College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
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Abstract  

Winter snowpack is an important source of moisture that influences the development of biological soil crusts (BSCs) in desert ecosystems. Cyanobacteria are important photosynthetic organisms in BSCs. However, the responses of the cyanobacterial community in BSCs to snowpack, snow depth and melting snow are still unknown. In this study, we investigated the cyanobacterial community composition and diversity in BSCs under different snow treatments (doubled snow, ambient snow and removed snow) and three snow stages (stage 1, snowpack; stage 2, melting snow; and stage 3, melted snow) in the Gurbantunggut Desert in China. In stages 1 and 2, Cyanobacteria were the dominant phylum in the bacterial community in the removed snow treatment, whereas Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were abundant in the bacterial communities in the ambient snow and doubled snow treatments. The relative abundances of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes increased with increasing snow depth. The relative abundances of Cyanobacteria and other bacterial taxa were affected mainly by soil temperature and irradiance. In stages 2 and 3, the relative abundance of Cyanobacteria increased quickly due to the suitable soil moisture and irradiance conditions. Oscillatoriales, Chroococcales, Nostocales, Synechococcales and unclassified Cyanobacteria were detected in all the snow treatments, and the most dominant taxa were Oscillatoriales and Chroococcales. Various cyanobacterial taxa showed different responses to snowpack. Soil moisture and irradiance were the two critical factors shaping the cyanobacterial community structure. The snowpack depth and duration altered the soil surface irradiance, soil moisture and other soil properties, which consequently were selected for different cyanobacterial communities. Thus, local microenvironmental filtering (niche selection) caused by snow conditions may be a dominant process driving shifts in the cyanobacterial community in BSCs.

Key words： cyanobacterial diversity      community structure      biological soil crusts      snowpack      niche selection     
Published: 10 March 2021
Corresponding Authors:
About author: ZHANG Yuanming (E-mail: zhangym@ms.xjb.ac.cn)
* LI Xiangzhen (E-mail: lixz@cib.ac.cn);
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Bingchang ZHANG
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Cite this article:

ZHANG Bingchang, ZHANG Yongqing, ZHOU Xiaobing, LI Xiangzhen, ZHANG Yuanming. Snowpack shifts cyanobacterial community in biological soil crusts. Journal of Arid Land, 2021, 13(3): 239-256.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-021-0061-x     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2021/V13/I3/239

Fig. 1 Location of the study area in the Gurbantunggut Desert (a) and demonstration of the experimental design (b). DS, double snow; AS, ambient snow; RS, removed snow.
Environmental property Fsnow treatments
(df=2)		 Fsnow stages
(df=2)		 Fsnow treatments×snow stages (df=4) Environmental property Fsnow treatments
(df=2)		 Fsnow stage
(df=2)		 Fsnow treatments×snow stages (df=4)
SOC 4.489* 5.995** 3.256* pH 10.381** 2.117 0.445
Total N 5.219* 5.266* 4.849** EC 0.947 13.675** 2.307
Total P 0.580 0.217 0.187 Total salts 3.468 0.667 1.031
Total K 1.041 2.261 0.525 Soil moisture 19.179** 129.255** 5.565**
Available N 3.290 0.580 1.979 Soil temperature 1685.724** 37.588** 409.824**
Available P 0.783 1.288 5.078** Irradiance 3999.179** 793.259** 409.196
Available K 6.858** 0.315 0.612
Table 1 Repeated-measures ANOVA results for the effects of snow treatments, snow stages and their interactions on the environmental properties of biological soil crusts (BSCs)
Table 2 Soil physicochemical properties of BSCs in different snow treatments and stages
Fig. 2 Effects of snow depth and stages on (a) cyanobacterial OTUs (operational taxonomic units; richness) and (b) relative abundance in the total bacterial community. Stage 1, snowpack; Stage 2, melting snow; Stage 3, melted snow; DS, double snow; AS, ambient snow; RS, removed snow. Bars mean standard deviations. The different lowercase letters indicate significant differences at the P<0.05 level among different snow treatments in the same stage (LSD). The different uppercase letters indicate significant differences at the P<0.05 level (LSD) in different stages of the same snow treatment.
df Nostocales Oscillatoriales Chroococcales Synechococcales Unclassified Cyanobacteria
Fsnow treatments 2 2.364 6.193* 6.674** 4.172* 3.223*
Fsnow stages 2 4.098* 3.798* 3.395 1.231 1.646
Fsnow treatments×snow stages 4 1.630 3.798* 2.656 0.514 2.911*
Table 3 Repeated-measures ANOVA results for the effects of snow treatments, snow stages and their interactions on the relative abundances of cyanobacterial orders in BSCs
Table 4 Dominant cyanobacterial taxa and their relative abundances in the total bacterial community in different treatments and stages
Fig. 3 RDA plots showing the relationships between cyanobacterial OTU compositions and soil physicochemical properties. RDA, canonical redundancy analysis; DS, double snow; AS, ambient snow; RS, removed snow; SOC, soil organic carbon; EC, electrical conductivity.
Fig. S1 Phylogenetic trees based on the 16S rRNA (ribosomal ribonucleic acid) gene representative sequences of cyanobacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) from biological soil crusts (BSCs) samples and reference sequences using maximum likelihood method
Fig. S2 Bacterial community compositions in different snow treatments and snow stages. Stage 1, snowpact; Stage 2, melting snow; Stage 3, melted snow; DS, double snow; AS, ambient snow; RS, removed snow. The data in the figure are the mean relative abundance of five replicate samples. The data at top of each bar is the total numbers of bacterial OTUs.
Table S1 Correlation coefficients among soil physicochemical properties of biological soil crusts (BSCs)
Table S2 Affiliations of cyanobacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and their relative abundances in BSCs in different snow treatments and stages
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