A comprehensive study to understand the effects of soil type, soil transplant and landuse changes on soil microbial community and its feedback responses

The experiment at three long-term agricultural experimental stations (namely the N, M and S sites) across northeast to southeast China was setup and operated by the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This experiment belongs to an integrated project (The Soil Reciprocal Transplant Experiment, SRTE) which serves as a platform for a number of studies evaluating climate and cropping effects on soil microbial diversity and its agro-ecosystem functioning. Soil transplant serves as a proxy to simulate climate change in realistic climate regimes. Here, we assessed the effects of soil type, soil transplant and landuse changes on soil microbial communities, which are key drivers in Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. Eighty one samples were collected from three soil types (Mollisol,Inceptisol,Ultisol) in three sites (Hailun, Fengqiu and Yingtan) along a latitude with reciprocal transplant; With three treatment of bare fallow soil, maize cropping soil and NPK fertilization soil in each site; Three replicates in every treatments.