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Agronomy, Vol. 10, Pages 1752: Effects of Elevated CO2 on Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) Growth and Rhizosphere Soil Microbial Community Structure and Functionality
Agronomy doi: 10.3390/agronomy10111752
Authors: Hehua Wang Haoxin Fan Huaiying Yao
Although elevated CO2 (eCO2) in the atmosphere is one of the main factors influencing climate and ecosystem stability, less research on eCO2 in greenhouse soil systems has been conducted, despite their prevalence. In this article, phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiling, 16S rRNA and Internally Transcribed Spacer (ITS) gene sequencing and high-throughput quantity polymerase chain reactions (HT-qPCRs) for 72 biogeochemical cycling-related genes were used to reveal the comprehensive responses of microbes to 23 days eCO2 fumigation in the soil of a tomato greenhouse. Our results indicated that eCO2 significantly increased microbial biomass (p < 0.05). The fungal community was more susceptible to eCO2 than the bacterial community; the fungal alpha diversity indices decreased significantly under eCO2 (p < 0.05) and the abundance of Ascomycota and its lower level taxa also increased significantly (p < 0.01). The absolute abundance of numerous C, N, P, S and methane cycling related genes increased significantly (p < 0.05) under eCO2. Furthermore, the microbial community structure and function were correlated with certain measured plant characteristics. Hence, the microbial ecosystem of the tomato greenhouse soil system was stimulated under eCO2. These results contribute to a greater understanding of how eCO2 in the atmosphere affects terrestrial ecosystem stability.