Variations of soil bacterial community structure and function under different habitats of <i>Tamarix ramosissima</i> Ledeb. in the upper reaches of the Tarim River, Northwest China

doi:10.1007/s40333-025-0010-1

Journal of Arid Land

2025, Vol. 17

Issue (4): 560-574 DOI: 10.1007/s40333-025-0010-1

Research article

Variations of soil bacterial community structure and function under different habitats of Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb. in the upper reaches of the Tarim River, Northwest China

YANG Qianqian¹^,²^,³, WU Xue¹^,²^,³^,⁴^,^*(

), Bota BAHETHAN¹^,²^,³, TIAN Cuiping¹^,²^,³, YANG Xianyao¹^,²^,³, WANG Xiantao¹^,²^,³

¹College of Ecology and Environment, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China
²Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology, Ministry of Education, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China
³Xinjiang Jinghe Observation and Research Station of Temperate Desert Ecosystem, Ministry of Education, Jinghe 833300, China
⁴Technology Innovation Center for Ecological Monitoring and Restoration of Desert-Oasis, Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), Urumqi 830046, China

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Abstract

Diversity of soil microorganisms in different habitats of arid and semi-arid areas plays an important role in the soil texture and nutrient, promoting the growth of vegetation in those areas. To clarify the response of soil bacterial community diversity to the changes of environmental factors in different habitats, this study collected soil samples under the canopies of Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb. in oasis, transition zone, and desert habitats in the upper reaches of the Tarim River, Northwest China. High-throughput sequencing technology and PICRUSt2 software were used to explore the composition and function of soil bacterial communities in different habitats of T. ramosissima. The results showed that: (1) soil environmental factors under the canopy of T. ramosissima in the three habitats differed significantly, with soil moisture and nutrient conditions being better in the oasis; (2) Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Gemmatimonadetes were the major bacterial communities in the three habitats; (3) soil bacterial community composition under the canopy of T. ramosissima varied greatly, and the richness was significantly different among the three habitats; (4) redundancy analysis indicated that soil water content and available phosphorous were the most important environmental factors influencing the composition of soil bacterial community; and (5) 6 primary functions and 21 secondary functions were obtained by PICRUSt2 function prediction, with metabolism being the most dominant function. This study revealed the response of soil bacterial community composition to habitat changes and their driving factors in the upper reaches of the Tarim River, which could improve the understanding of ecological sensitivity of soil microorganisms in arid and semi-arid areas, and provide a theoretical foundation for improving soil quality and ecological protection.

Key words： high-throughput sequencing soil bacterial community environmental factors function prediction soil nutrients

Received: 04 October 2024 Published: 30 April 2025

Corresponding Authors: ^*WU Xue (E-mail: wuxue@xju.edu.cn)

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	YANG Qianqian
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	Bota BAHETHAN
	TIAN Cuiping
	YANG Xianyao
	WANG Xiantao

Cite this article:

YANG Qianqian, WU Xue, Bota BAHETHAN, TIAN Cuiping, YANG Xianyao, WANG Xiantao. Variations of soil bacterial community structure and function under different habitats of Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb. in the upper reaches of the Tarim River, Northwest China. Journal of Arid Land, 2025, 17(4): 560-574.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-025-0010-1 OR http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2025/V17/I4/560

Fig. 1 Landscape of different habitats of Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb. in the upper reaches of the Tarim River. (a), oasis; (b), transition zone; (c), desert.

Table 1 Community structure of Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb. in different habitats

Table 2 Characteristics of soil environmental factors under the canopy of T. ramosissima in different habitats

Fig. 2 Relative abundance of the first 10 phyla of soil bacterial community under the canopy of T. ramosissima in different habitats. Bars are standard errors. * indicates significant differences among the three habitats at P<0.05 level.

Fig. 3 Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) of soil bacterial community under the canopy of T. ramosissima in different habitats. We used LDA score >4 to identify significant differences based on biomarkers between groups. p, phylum; c, class; o, order; f, family; g, genus.

Fig. 4 Diversity and richness indices of soil bacterial community under the canopy of T. ramosissima in different habitats. (a), Shannon index; (b), ACE (accumulated cyclone energy) index; (c), Simpson index; (d), Chao1 index. Bars are standard errors. * indicates significant differences among the three habitats at P<0.05 level, and ** indicates significant differences among the three habitats at P<0.01 level.

Fig. 5 Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of soil bacterial community under the canopy of T. ramosissima in different habitats. PC, principal coordinate.

Fig. 6 Redundancy analysis (RDA) of phylum-level bacterial community and soil environmental factors. O_Tc, oasis; D_Tc, desert; T_Tc, transition zone.

Fig. 7 Correlation network between soil microbial species and environmental factors in different habitats. (a), oasis; (b), transition zone; (c), desert.

Table 3 Characteristics of primary function of soil bacterial community under the canopy of T. ramosissima in different habitats

Fig. 8 Heatmap of soil bacterial function prediction in different habitats. Only the function with relative abundance of metabolic pathways greater than 0.10% was demonstrated. Different uppercase letters within the same row indicate significant differences among the three habitats at P<0.01 level, and different lowercase letters within the same row indicate significant differences among the three habitats at P<0.05 level.


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