Metabolomics reveals changes in soil metabolic profiles during vegetation succession in karst area

TL;DR

This study shows how soil chemical profiles change as vegetation grows in karst areas, offering insights for managing these fragile ecosystems.

Contribution

The study identifies specific soil metabolites and metabolic pathways that change with vegetation succession in karst ecosystems.

Findings

Soil metabolite abundance and composition change significantly with vegetation succession stages.

Metabolites like maltotetraose and bifurcose show distinct patterns across vegetation stages.

Key metabolic pathways such as galactose metabolism and unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis are affected by succession.

Abstract

Soil metabolites are critical in regulating the dynamics of ecosystem structure and function, particularly in fragile karst ecosystems. Clarification of response of soil metabolism to vegetation succession in karst areas will contribute to the overall understanding and management of karst soils. Here, we investigated the metabolite characteristics of karst soils with different vegetation stages (grassland, brushwood, secondary forest and primary forest) based on untargeted metabolomics. We confirmed that the abundance and composition of soil metabolites altered with vegetation succession. Of the 403 metabolites we found, 157 had significantly varied expression levels across vegetation soils, including mainly lipids and lipid-like molecules, phenylpropanoids and polyketides, organic acids and derivatives. Certain soil metabolites, such as maltotetraose and bifurcose, were sensitive to vegetation succession, increasing significantly from grassland to brushwood and then decreasing dramatically in secondary and primary forests, making them possible indicators of karst vegetation succession. In addition, soil metabolic pathways, such as galactose metabolism and biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, also changed with vegetation succession. This study characterized the soil metabolic profile in different vegetation stages during karst secondary succession, which would provide new insights for the management of karst soils.

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