Soil Bacterial Community Structure and its Driving Factors in Biological Crust Under Different Planting Patterns

Biological soil crust can effectively prevent wind erosion of sand and soil, which is of great significance to ecological restoration in desert areas. There have been few studies that have screened different planting patterns by analyzing biological crust properties. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the bacterial 16S rRNA community structure of biologically crusted soil in sandy bare land (CK), planting corn soil crust (CB), planting potato soil crust (TB) and planting alfalfa soil crust (AB), and nutrient profiles of each soil type were also analyzed. The results showed that soil nutrient content was significantly increased by the biological layer, and the organic matter, available phosphorus, and available potassium contents were significantly increased. In terms of bacterial communities, the TB treatment had more endemic genera (100). The top 10 phyla in terms of relative abundance accounted for around 95% of the total community, with Actinobacteria being the highest. The community structure of CB and AB was similar, and the diversity and richness indices of CB were significantly increased compared to those of CK. The available phosphorus and total nitrogen were found to be the main factors affecting bacterial community structure. The dominant role of Actinobacteria was mainly determined by pH. Overall, the results show that corn planting could be most helpful in the early restoration period of sandy land.