• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.1013-1022
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• 2023

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are widespread soil endophytic fungi, forming mutualistic relationships with the vast majority of land plants. Biochar (BC) has been reported to improve soil fertility and promote plant growth. However, limited studies are available concerning the combined effects of AMF and BC on soil community structure and plant growth. In this work, a pot experiment was designed to investigate the effects of AMF and BC on the rhizosphere microbial community of Allium fistulosum L. Using Illumina high-throughput sequencing, we showed that inoculation of AMF and BC had a significant impact on soil microbial community composition, diversity, and versatility. Increases were observed in both plant growth (the plant height by 8.6%, shoot fresh weight by 12.1%) and root morphological traits (average diameter by 20.5%). The phylogenetic tree also showed differences in the fungal community composition in A. fistulosum. In addition, Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) analysis revealed that 16 biomarkers were detected in the control (CK) and AMF treatment, while only 3 were detected in the AMF + BC treatment. Molecular ecological network analysis showed that the AMF + BC treatment group had a more complex network of fungal communities, as evidenced by higher average connectivity. The functional composition spectrum showed significant differences in the functional distribution of soil microbial communities among different fungal genera. The structural equation model (SEM) confirmed that AMF could improve the microbial multifunctionality by regulating the rhizosphere fungal diversity and soil properties. Our findings provide new information on the effects of AMF and biochar on plants and soil microbial communities.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.282-291
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• 2022

Background: The Arctic permafrost stores enormous amount of carbon (C), about one third of global C stocks. However, drastically increasing temperature in the Arctic makes the stable frozen C stock vulnerable to microbial decomposition. The released carbon dioxide from permafrost can cause accelerating C feedback to the atmosphere. Soil organic matter (SOM) composition would be the basic information to project the trajectory of C under rapidly changing climate. However, not many studies on SOM characterization have been done compared to quantification of SOM stocks. Thus, the purpose of our study is to determine soil properties and molecular compositions of SOM in four different Arctic regions. We collected soils in different soil layers from 1) Cambridge Bay, Canada, 2) Council, Alaska, USA, 3) Svalbard, Norway, and 4) Zackenberg, Greenland. The basic soil properties were measured, and the molecular composition of SOM was analyzed through pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (py-GC/MS). Results: The Oi layer of soil in Council, Alaska showed the lowest soil pH and the highest electrical conductivity (EC) and SOM content. All soils in each site showed increasing pH and decreasing SOC and EC values with soil depth. Since the Council site was moist acidic tundra compared to other three dry tundra sites, soil properties were distinct from the others: high SOM and EC, and low pH. Through the py-GC/MS analysis, a total of 117 pyrolysis products were detected from 32 soil samples of four different Arctic soils. The first two-axis of the PCA explained 38% of sample variation. While short- and mid-hydrocarbons were associated with mineral layers, lignins and polysaccharides were linked to organic layers of Alaska and Cambridge Bay soil. Conclusions: We conclude that the py-GC/MS results separated soil samples mainly based on the origin of SOM (plants- or microbially-derived). This molecular characteristics of SOM can play a role of controlling SOM degradation to warming. Thus, it should be further investigated how the SOM molecular characteristics have impacts on SOM dynamics through additional laboratory incubation studies and microbial decomposition measurements in the field.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.978-989
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• 2021

Allyl isothiocyanate (AITC), as a fumigant, plays an important role in soil control of nematodes, soil-borne pathogens, and weeds, but its effects on soil microorganisms are unclear. In this study, the effects of AITC on microbial diversity and community composition of Capsicum annuum L. soil were investigated through Illumina high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that microbial diversity and community structure were significantly influenced by AITC. AITC reduced the diversity of soil bacteria, stimulated the diversity of the soil fungal community, and significantly changed the structure of fungal community. AITC decreased the relative abundance of dominant bacteria Planctomycetes, Acinetobacter, Pseudodeganella, and RB41, but increased that of Lysobacter, Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas, Luteimonas, Pseudoxanthomonas, and Bacillus at the genera level, while for fungi, Trichoderma, Neurospora, and Lasiodiplodia decreased significantly and Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Penicillium, and Saccharomyces were higher than the control. The correlation analysis suggested cellulase had a significant correlation with fungal operational taxonomic units and there was a significant correlation between cellulase and fungal diversity, while catalase, cellulose, sucrase, and urease were the major contributors in the shift of the community structure. Our results will provide useful information for the use of AITC in the assessment of environmental and ecological security.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.350-350
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• 2017

The study was conducted to evaluate differences of growth characteristics of rice cultivated in two different regions (Cheonan and Jeonju). It focused on nutritional composition and anti-nutritional factors of rice straw produced from 21 rice varieties including GM rice (Iksan 483). The range of general nutrition ingredient is that crude was 0.97 ~ 3.2 %, carbohydrate was 67.45 ~ 80.01 %, crude protein was 1.46 ~ 4.81 %, crude ash was 6.52 ~ 18.96 %, crude fiber was 25.77 ~ 40.02 %, NDF was 51.84 ~ 67.77 %, ADF was 27.11 ~ 40.44 %, calcium was 0.49 ~ 5.18 mg/g and phosphorous was 0.26 ~ 2.77 mg/g. The general nutritional contents of GM rice were included above range. The range of phytic acid of rice straws cultivated in Cheonan and Jeonju was 0 ~ 0.056 mg/ml and 0 ~ 0.059 mg/ml, respectively. The phytic acid content of GM was 0.033 mg/ml, which was in the range of the content of rice straw in Cheonan and Jeonju. The range of trypsin inhibitor of rice straws cultivated in Cheonan and Jeonju was 0.061 ~ 0.461 TIU/mg and 0 ~ 1.278 TIU/mg, respectively. The trypsin acid content of GM was 0.461 TIU/mg, which was in the range of the content of rice straw in Cheonan and Jeonju. In addition, we investigated microbial community from each soil sample by using metagenomics sequencing based on rRNA microbial diversity in order to inspect indirect changes of soil environment with cultivation of GM rice. Metagenomics analysis was carried out using soil samples cultivated with GM and non-GM rice for before transplanting, young panicle differentiation stage, heading stage, and ripening stage. Beta diversity of microbial community in both soil environments were calculated by using Bray-Curtis distance method and showed low value with an average of 0.24 (dissimilarity = 1). As a result, it was confirmed that the cultivation of GM does not give a significant effect on the change of microbial composition in soil. Therefore, Our study demonstrates that there is no difference in the composition of soil microorganism due to GM and non-GM rice.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2023

Background: The positive effects of Arctic plants on the soil environment and plant-species co-occurrence patterns are known to be particularly important in physically harsh environments. Although three dominant plants (Cassiope tetragona, Dryas octopetala, and Silene acaulis) are abundant in the Arctic ecosystem at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, few studies have examined their occurrence patterns with other species and their buffering effect on soil-temperature and soil-moisture fluctuation. To quantify the plant-species co-occurrence patterns and their positive effects on soil environments, I surveyed the vegetation cover, analyzed the soil-chemical properties (total carbon, total nitrogen, pH, and soil organic matter) from 101 open plots, and measured the daily soil-temperature and soil-moisture content under three dominant plant patches and bare soil. Results: The Cassiope tetragona and Dryas octopetala communities increased the soil-temperature stability; however, the three dominant plant communities did not significantly affect the soil-moisture stability. Non-metric multidimensional scaling separated the sampling sites into three groups based on the different vegetation compositions. The three dominant plants occurred randomly with other species; however, the vegetation composition of two positive co-occurring species pairs (Oxyria digyna-Cerastium acrticum and Luzula confusa-Salix polaris) was examined. The plant species richness did not significantly differ in the three plant communities. Conclusions: The three plant communities showed distinctive vegetation compositions; however, the three dominant plants were randomly and widely distributed throughout the study sites. Although the facilitative effects of the three Arctic plants on increases in the soil-moisture fluctuation and richness were not quantified, this research enables a deeper understanding of plant co-occurrence patterns in Arctic ecosystems and thereby contributes to predicting the shift in vegetation composition and coexistence in response to climate warming. This research highlights the need to better understand plant-plant interactions within tundra communities.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.135-143
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• 2022

Soils are natural granular materials whose mechanical properties differ according to the size and composition of the particles, so soils exhibit an obvious scale effect. Traditional soil mechanics is based on continuum mechanics, which can not reflect the impact of particle size on soil mechanics. On that basis, a matrix-reinforcing-particle cell model is established in which the reinforcing particles are larger-diameter sand particles and the matrix comprises smaller-diameter bentonite particles. Since these two types of particles deform differently under shear stress, a new shear-strength theory under direct shear that considers the stress concentration and bypass phenomena of the matrix is established. In order to verify the rationality of this theory, a series of direct shear tests with different reinforcing particle diameter and volume fraction ratio are carried out. Theoretical analysis and experimental results showed that the interaction among particles of differing size and composition is the basic reason for the size effect of soils. Furthermore, the stress concentration and bypass phenomena of the matrix enhance the shear strength of a soil, and the volume ratio of reinforcing particles has an obvious impact on the shear strength. In addition, the newly proposed shear-strength theory agrees well with experimental values.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.21-37
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• 2022

The present study was carried out to evaluate the chemical properties of soil in relation to forest structure and composition at different altitudes (900-2,600 m asl) in a part of Western Himalaya. The composite soil samples were taken from three (viz. upper, middle and lower) depths. The soils of the whole study area were acidic in nature (pH=4.90-5.51). Contents of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), Carbon (C) and soil organic matter (SOM) showed much fluctuation during different seasons of year. Nitrogen content showed significant positive correlations with altitude (r=0.924, p<0.05) and different community parameters like species diversity (r=0.892, p<0.01) and species richness (r=0.941, p<0.05). Phosphorus exhibited direct correlations with carbon (r=0.637) while weak negative correlations with different community parameters like species richness & diversity, total basal cover (TBC), density and canopy cover. Carbon content and hence SOM showed direct correlations with Nitrogen (r=0.821, p<0.01); Phosphorus (r=0.637, ns) and Potassium (r=0.540, ns). But no significant relationship was observed between K content and species richness (p=0.30, r=-0.504); between K content and species diversity (p=0.14, r=-0.672); between P content and species diversity (p=0.29, r=-0.513) and species richness (p=0.23, r=-0.575). Among the different soil nutrients, only N showed a significant positive correlation with altitude while all others exhibited negative (but non-significant) correlation with it. The study revealed that the chemical properties affect and are reciprocally affected by forest structure and composition and that N rich soils of higher altitudes are best for the growth and development of forests.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.9-19
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• 2017

We studied soil composition, $N_2O$ production, a number of denitrifying bacteria, community structure and T-RFLP patterns of denitrifying bacteria dependent on agricultural methods with the change of seasons. Analyses of the soil chemical composition revealed that total carbon and total organic carbon contents were 1.57% and 1.28% in the organic farming soil, 1.52% and 1.24% in the emptiness farming soil, and 1.40% and 0.95% in traditional farming soil, respectively. So, the amount of organic carbon was relatively high in the environment friendly farming soils than traditional farming soils. In case of $N_2O$ production, the amount of $N_2O$ production was high in May and November soils, but the rate of $N_2O$ production was fast in August soil. The average number of denitrifying bacteria were $1.32{\times}10^4MPN{\cdot}g^{-1}$ in the organic farming soil, $1.17{\times}10^4MPN{\cdot}g^{-1}$ in the emptiness farming soil, and $6.29{\times}10^3MPN{\cdot}g^{-1}$ in the traditional farming soil. It was confirmed that the environment friendly farming soil have a larger number of denitrifying bacteria than the traditional farming soil. As a result of the phylogenetic analyses, it was confirmed that six clusters were included in organic farming soil among total 10 clusters. And the result of PCA profile distribution of T-RFLP pattern on agricultural methods, the range of distribution showed wide in the organic farming method, relatively narrow in the conventional farming method, and middle in the emptiness farming method. Therefore, we could concluded that the distribution and the community structure of denitrifying bacteria were changed according to the agricultural methods and seasons.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.4
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• pp.577-589
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• 2021

Soil seed bank community contributes to the long-term conservation of plant diversity and vegetation dynamics, and their decreasing diversity and density with soil depth provide critical perspectives (deterministic and stochastic) for understanding the community disassembly process. We analyzed changes in species composition and diversity and structuring patterns by soil layer (top and bottom), including surface vegetation, in Gwangneung Forest, a mature forest with a vegetation climate in the temperate central part of the Korean Peninsula. From two layers of soil collected with a vertical difference of 10 cm, 934 specimens of 27 families, 40 genera, 44 species, three varieties, and 47 taxa, germinated. Although species diversity and germination density decreased in most comparative characteristics, including growth type, there was no statistical significance due to large deviations. Within-group variability of species composition was similar in the upper and lower soils, as was the decline pattern in co-occurred species (ζ-diversity) and change in species retention probability. The structuring process of the community composition in the two soil layers was fitted with an exponential correlation rather than a power function, demonstrating the dominance of the stochastic process. The pattern in diversity and species turnover according to soil depth in Gwangneung Forest was discovered to be structured by stochastic random events, such as seed vertical movement rather than interaction with trait characteristics.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.90-102
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• 2018

Background: We sought to understand the relationship between the seed bank and vegetation in abandoned rice paddies in South Korea, in order to guide management of these sites. We investigated the floristic composition and species richness of the soil seed bank and ground vegetation in former paddies along three seral gradients (wet meadow, young forest, and mature forest) in Gwangneung Forest Biosphere Reserve. Results: Seed bank samples contained 59 species, of which the dominant families were Cyperaceae, Gramineae, and Polygonaceae. Species richness and seedling density (59 taxa and 19,121 germinants from all samples) were high. Carex spp. (11, 921 germinants) were the dominant taxa. The species composition in the seed bank changed gradually as the land transitioned from wet meadow to mature forest. Sørensen's index of similarity between above- and below-ground vegetation was 29.3% for wet meadow, 10.8% for young forest, and 2.1% for mature forest. Germinant density also declined, with 10, 256 germinants for wet meadow, 6445 germinants for young forest, and 2420 germinants for mature forest. Conclusions: Changes in aboveground environment and life history traits such as amphicarpic plants, likely affect the composition of soil seed bank species. Abandoned paddy fields may be good sites for restoration of wetland forest and conservation of wetland habitat. Some intervention may be required to promote the recovery of a natural species assemblage.