Plant stage modulates microbial communities across different soil aggregate size classes and disease levels

Plant roots impact the soil structure and microbial community, thus influencing the functions such as disease suppression. However, little is known about how residents of different soil aggregate size classes are impacted by plants throughout their growth stages. This is especially important with respect of invasion of plant pathogens because the micro-scale heterogeneity of soil aggregates could provide habitats for soil-borne pathogens and pathogen inhibitors among different size classes. We therefore examined how plant impact soil structure and bacterial communities and furtherly examined if the distribution of specific taxa across particle classes could be related to the density of the pathogen

植物根系可影响土壤结构与微生物群落，进而调控诸如病害抑制等土壤生态功能。然而，目前对于植物在整个生长周期内如何作用于不同粒径土壤团聚体中的土壤生物，尚缺乏清晰认知。而就植物病原菌的侵染过程而言，该问题尤为关键：土壤团聚体的微尺度异质性可在不同粒径分级中为土传病原菌及病原菌拮抗物提供栖息生境。因此，本研究探究了植物对土壤结构与细菌群落的调控作用，并进一步分析了不同粒径团聚体中特定微生物类群的分布是否与病原菌密度存在关联。