Shift in the rhizosphere microbial communities between growing- and low-temperature dormant seasons in a northern hardwood forest

Abstract

[Background and aims] Microbial communities within the soil surrounding plant roots (rhizosphere) are distinct from those in the non-rhizosphere soil because of root exudation and symbiosis with plant roots and play important roles in plant growth. However, seasonal variations in these rhizosphere microbial communities are not well known, especially during the plant’s dormant season in cool temperate forests. [Methods] We investigated the rhizosphere microbial communities in a cool-temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest at the growing season (mid-summer) and at the beginning and end of the plant’s dormant season (early winter and early spring) using metabarcoding of prokaryotic 16S rRNA genes and fungal ITS region, microbial functional prediction, and co-occurrence network analysis. [Results] The rhizosphere dominant prokaryotic subgroup (occupying 19.4 ± 3.2% of relative read counts) had non-significant seasonal fluctuations, and their relative read counts were correlated with physicochemical properties, including pH and water content. In contrast, the relative read count of ectomycorrhizal fungi was 1.4 times higher in the rhizosphere than that in the bulk soil in mid-summer. However, the relative read counts of ectomycorrhizal fungi within rhizospheres in winter and spring (28.5 ± 18.9% and 20.8 ± 13.8%, respectively) were similar to that in bulk soil (25.8 ± 18.7% and 22.4 ± 17.1%, respectively). [Conclusion] Ectomycorrhizal fungi reduced their occupancy within the rhizosphere during the plant’s dormant seasons, whereas rhizosphere-dominant prokaryotic communities were stable during the seasonal change, implying the importance of prokaryotic rather than ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in the processes occurring within the rhizosphere during dormant seasons.