Soil microbial diversity associated with Phragmites asutralis variation in a salinity gradient in the Yellow River Delta

We analyzed the bacterial and fungal communities in a P. australis wetland of the Yellow River Delta using amplicon high-throughput sequencing at a fine scale, and explored the associations of soil microbial diversity with soil properties, plant intraspecific variation and geographical distance.Additionally, to test the effect of P. australis lineages on soil bacterial diversity via litter and root pathways, nine genotypes of P. australis were used in a litter decomposition microcosm experiment and a common garden experiment.Eventually, we aimed to answer the scientific questions: (a) whether salinity overwhelms soil nutrient, plant intraspecific variation and geographical distance in shaping microbial community within reed wetlands, (b) to what extent the plant intraspecific variation could affect associated soil microbial community, and (c) how salinity mediates the balance between stochastic and deterministic assembly of microbial community.