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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Soil Lysimeter Excavation for Coupled Hydrological, Geochemical, and Microbiological Investigations

Soil Lysimeter Excavation for Coupled Hydrological, Geochemical, and Microbiological Investigations

Published on: September 11, 2016

Moisture-mediated resource availability shapes rhizosphere and bulk soil microbial structure and function

Hengsheng Wang^1,2, Yanli Han³, Chao Chen⁴

¹School of Biological and Food Engineering, Hefei Normal University, Hefei, China.

Frontiers in Microbiology

|July 9, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Heavy rainfall rapidly alters soil microbes differently in plant roots (rhizosphere) versus bulk soil. Rhizosphere microbial diversity decreased, while both compartments showed shifts in metabolic functions, impacting nutrient cycling.

Keywords:

Poa alpigena metagenomics microbial functional shift niche-dependent changes rainfall pulses

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Area of Science:

Soil microbiology
Alpine grassland ecology
Metagenomics

Background:

Rainfall pulses are key drivers of ecological change in alpine grasslands.
Short-term soil microbial responses to rainfall, especially compartment-specific effects, are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the structural and functional responses of rhizosphere and bulk soil microbiomes to rainfall.
To understand the impact of rainfall on microbial community assembly and metabolic potential in different soil compartments.

Main Methods:

Collected paired soil samples (rhizosphere and bulk soil) from Poa alpigena in the Qinghai Lake Basin.
Analyzed samples collected before and 2 hours after heavy rainfall using shotgun metagenomic DNA sequencing.

Main Results:

Rainfall caused compartment-specific shifts: rhizosphere alpha diversity decreased, while evenness increased; bulk soil diversity remained stable.
Rhizosphere microbial communities shifted from carbon-oriented to pathways involving central carbon, amino acid degradation, and chemotaxis.
Enrichment of Paraburkholderia in the nitrogen-limited rhizosphere post-rainfall suggests a role in nitrogen cycling; bulk soil shifted to labile carbon utilization.

Conclusions:

Rainfall pulses induce rapid, niche-dependent changes in soil microbiomes at the DNA level.
Moisture availability drives these shifts, revealing distinct ecological strategies in rhizosphere versus bulk soil.
Rainfall simplifies microbial interactions and weakens microbial-physicochemical property coupling.