[Community Structure and Functional Groups of Soil Bacteria during Shrub Introduction at Different Densities in the...

In the 1970s and 1980s, to prevent grassland degradation caused by overgrazing of desert grassland in eastern Ningxia, a large number of a leguminous shrub （Caragana korshinskii） were introduced for revegetation. Over time, and with increasing density, noticeable soil aridification and herbaceous degradation occurred. To explore the effects of "desert grassland degradation-shrub introduction" on soil bacterial communities and their roles in soil carbon and nitrogen transformations, we selected enclosed grassland, grazed grassland, and shrublands with different planting spacings （40, 6, and 2 m） as the research objects. Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing technology was employed to investigate differential bacterial communities, species network structures, functional groups, and their relationships with soil factors. The results showed that the relative abundance of Firmicute, Bacteroidota, and Nitrospirota increased in grazed grassland and shrubland compared to that in enclosed grassland. The increase in shrub density promoted the relative abundance of Firmicute. The bacterial carbon functional group of shrubland significantly increased the degradation of carbon compounds, and its nitrogen functional group promoted the availability of soil nitrogen with increasing shrub density compared to that of enclosed and grazed grassland. Shrub introduction reduced the association of bacterial dominant communities and functional groups with soil factors. This was evidenced by regulation through soil organic carbon content and β-1,4-N-acetylglucosidase during degradation and driven by nitrate nitrogen and β-1,4-N-acetylglucosidase during introduction, potentially accelerating soil microbial carbon and nitrogen metabolic processes.