Diversity of soil bacteria in alpine coal slag mountain grassland in different vegetation restoration years

Purpose This study aimed to investigate changes in the bacterial diversity of the rhizosphere soil of slag mountains in different years of revegetation restoration.

Methods Seven soil samples were selected from different years of revegetation restoration in Qinghai, China.

The bacterial community of each soil was analyzed via high-throughput sequencing using the Illumina MiSeq platform.

Results Statistical analyses revealed that the diversity of the soil bacterial community was higher in the soil that was restored in 2017 than that in the soils restored from other years.

16S rRNA sequencing revealed that Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were the dominant phyla.

Sphingomonas was the dominant genus.

Total nitrogen, available nitrogen, and total potassium influenced the horizontal community structure of the phylum, whereas total nitrogen, organic matter, and pH had a great influence on the horizontal community structure of the phylum.

The richness and diversity of the bacterial community in the soils that underwent revegetation restoration were greater in the third year (2017) than in other years.

In the seventh year of recovery, the richness and diversity of the bacterial community began to decline.

Conclusion The bacterial diversity of the soil in the coal mine slag mountain improved with the increase in vegetation restoration years.