[Microbial activity and community structure analysis under the different land use patterns in farmland soils: based...

Soil microbe plays an essential role in terrestrial ecosystem through its role in cycling mineral compounds and decomposing organic matter. The objective of this paper is to determine the influences of different land use patterns on soil microbial activity and community structure, which were analyzed by phospholipids fatty acid (PLFA) and MicroResp method, based on a long-term fertilization experiment in Taoyuan County, Hunan Province. There were three land use patterns included, i. e. paddy fields (PS), paddy-upland rotation (PU) and upland land (US) soils. The results showed that the amounts of bacteria PLFA, fungi PLFA and the total PLFA were generally following the order PS > PU > US. The ratio of bacteria PLFA/fungi PLFA followed the order PU > US > PS, however, the ratio of Gram-positive bacteria PLFA (G+ PLFA) to Gram-negative bacteria PLFA (G(-) PLFA) in PU was the highest, and there's no significant difference in PU and US. In addition, principal components analysis (PCA) and the average concentration (mol x mol(-1)) of biomarker-PLFAs also revealed that the relative content of fungi and G(-) in PS was much higher than those of in PU and US (P < 0.05). However, the relative content of G(+) in PU was higher than those of other two land use patters. Therefore, Microbial community structure was influenced significantly by land use patterns in our study. Soil microbial biomass had significant relationships (P < 0.05) with SOC, TN and MBC, but had no significant correlation with CEC. Meanwhile, MicroResp analysis indicated that most of the carbon substrate addition enhanced the microbial respiration rates, although different substrate had different use efficiency. The average of carbon substrate use efficiency could be also ranked in the order: PS > PU > US. We conclude that microbial activity and community structure were influenced significantly by land use patterns in farmlands.