Structure and Function of Winter Soil Microbial Communities in Riparian Zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area
The riparian habitat undergoes complex changes due to the artificial periodic operation of reservoirs,and little is known about the characteristics of riparian soil microorganisms during the winter season.In this study,riparian zones were selected as the research object during the high water level period of reservoir operation to investigate the variation characteristics in soil microorganisms,explore the driving factors,and predict key functions along the Three Gorges Reservoir(TGR).The results revealed that the a-diversity index of microbial communities increased with the distance from the dam.Between the upstream and downstream,the β-diversity of bacteria showed a significant difference(P<0.001)while fungi exhibited no significant difference(P>0.05).The similarity of community composition decreased as the Bray-Curtis distance increased(Bacteria:P<0.001;Fungi:P>0.05).PICRUSt2 function prediction showed that the main function of soil bacteria was related to metabolism pathways(78.64%),and the expression of carbon metabolism-related enzyme functional genes was much higher than that of nitrogen metabolism-related enzyme functional genes.Additionally,the nitrate reductase gene played a crucial role in nitrogen metabolism,and Armatimonadota,Patescibacteria and Spirochaetota could be used as marker taxa of the microbial metabolic pathway in winter riparian zones.
the Three Gorges Reservoir Areariparian zone soilmicrobial communitiessignificantly differential speciesfunctional genesmetabolism