4 Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst
Reclamation, 21000 Split, Croatia
*Correspondence1
E-mail address : longxiaohua@njau.edu.cn (X.H. Long).
Abstract: Saline-alkali soils are widely distributed in China,
affecting plant growth and sustainable development of ecosystems. This
study characterized the effects of planting Melia azedarach L. on
chemical properties and microbial communities in saline-alkali soils
[bare (CK), bulk (BS) and rhizosphere soil (RS)]. Compared with the
bare soil, planting Melia azedarach L. lowered salt content and
concentrations of extractable Na, K, Ca, Mg and Cl-,
but significantly increased organic matter, total nitrogen, total
phosphorus, available phosphorus, soil urease activity and alkaline
phosphatase activity in the rhizosphere soil. High-throughput sequencing
results indicated that bacterial richness and diversity decreased in the
order RS>BS>CK. The richness of fungi was
ranked RS>CK>BS, and their diversity decreased
in the order CK>RS>BS. The three dominant
bacterial phyla were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes,
and the three dominant fungal phyla were Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and
Glomeromycota. Redundancy analysis indicated that total phosphorus
concentration and alkaline phosphatase activity significantly influenced
bacterial diversity, whereas soil Ca and Mg concentrations were closely
related to the fungal community diversity. In conclusion, plantingMelia azedarach L. improved soil properties, increased the
diversity and richness of soil microbial communities, and thus
ameliorated the saline-alkali soil.