Effects of mowed Spartina alterniflora residue retention and plastic film mulching on soil bacterial community structure in coastal wetlands

doi:10.17520/biods.2025468

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: Mowing and mulching are key physical measures for controlling the invasive plant Spartina alterniflora in coastal wetlands. However, their long-term effects on soil physicochemical properties and microbial communities remain unclear.

Methods: This study investigated soil from the S. alterniflora-invaded tidal flats in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province. Four treatment combinations were established: removal versus retention of cut S. alterniflora residues under mulching conditions, and removal versus retention under non-mulching conditions. Soil physicochemical parameters were measured, and soil bacterial community characteristics were analyzed via amplicon sequencing to examine correlations between bacterial community composition and environmental factors.

Results: (1) Retaining S. alterniflora residues significantly increased soil total nitrogen, total carbon, organic carbon, and available potassium content. (2) Long-term mulching markedly reduced soil bacterial α diversity and the relative abundance of dominant bacterial taxa, and altered the community structure. Under the residue-removal mulching treatment, bacterial Pielou’s evenness and Simpson’s diversity indices were significantly lower than those in other treatments. The relative abundances of the Campylobacterota phylum and Sulfurovum genus significantly increased under residue-removal mulching. (3) Temperature, total nitrogen, total carbon, organic carbon, and available potassium jointly influenced the abundance of dominant bacteria such as Vibrio and Salinimicrobium, collectively explaining 74.6% of the variation in community structure.

Conclusion: Mulching after mowing is an effective physical control measure for S. alterniflora. However, long-term mulching combined with residue removal significantly reduces soil bacterial community diversity and alters community structure. Therefore, after mowing, a reasonable mulching duration should be established and mowed plant residues retained to avoid substantial negative impacts on soil bacterial community diversity and structure.

Key words: mulching, mowing, coastal wetlands, Spartina alterniflora, soil physichemical properties, bacterial community

Wei Huang, Yifan Liu, Tao Fang, Wei Zhao, Rong Wang, Ting Wu, Yu Jin, Fangli Luo, Yunqian Guo, Yaojun Zhu. Effects of mowed Spartina alterniflora residue retention and plastic film mulching on soil bacterial community structure in coastal wetlands[J]. Biodiv Sci, DOI: 10.17520/biods.2025468.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2025468

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2026/V34/I5/25468

Figures/Tables 7

Table 1 Effects of mowed Spartina alterniflora residue retention and plastic-film mulching on soil physicochemical properties

指标 Indicators	保留残体 Residue retention	保留残体 + 覆膜 Residue retention + film mulching	去除残体 Residue removal	去除残体 + 覆膜 Residue removal + film mulching
EC (μs/cm)	0.34 ± 0.01^a	0.35 ± 0.02^a	0.28 ± 0.01^b	0.24 ± 0.01^b
Temperature (℃)	15.34 ± 0.11^d	18.32 ± 0.10^c	22.20 ± 0.17^b	25.74 ± 0.49^a
TN (g/kg)	1.58 ± 0.06^a	0.99 ± 0.17^b	1.24 ± 0.17^ab	1.32 ± 0.09^ab
TC (g/kg)	17.22 ± 0.46^a	11.58 ± 1.27^b	13.96 ± 1.03^ab	15.38 ± 1.01^ab
SOC (g/kg)	16.66 ± 0.40^a	11.07 ± 1.26^b	13.62 ± 0.97^ab	14.64 ± 1.18^ab
NH₄⁺-N (mg/kg)	18.45 ± 0.58^a	17.93 ± 1.00^a	17.16 ± 0.60^a	19.48 ± 0.85^a
AK (mg/kg)	737.63 ± 21.46^a	537.40 ± 29.03^b	655.10 ± 54.88^ab	685.40 ± 19.57^a
AP (mg/kg)	58.50 ± 4.92^b	50.72 ± 5.62^b	66.56 ± 4.30^b	90.40 ± 5.89^a

Fig. 1 Relative abundance of soil bacteria at the phylum level (A) and genus level (B) under mowed Spartina alterniflora residue retention and plastic film mulching treatments

Fig. 2 α diversity indices of rhizosphere soil bacterial communities under mowed Spartina alterniflora residue retention and plastic film mulching treatments. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences in diversity indices among treatments (P < 0.05).

Fig. 3 Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination analysis of soil bacterial community structure based on weighted UniFrac distances under mowed Spartina alterniflora residue retention and plastic film mulching treatments

Table 2 Significance test for β diversity index differences between groups based on weighted UniFrac distance

两两组别 Pairwise groups	差值 Difference	P值 P value	置信下限 LCL	置信上限 UCL
保留残体/去除残体 Residue retention/residue removal	-0.667	0.735	-5.049	3.715
保留残体/保留残体 + 覆膜 Residue retention/residue retention + film mulching	-3.33	0.118	-7.715	1.049
保留残体/去除残体 + 覆膜 Residue retention/residue removal + film mulching	4.667	0.040	0.285	9.049
去除残体/保留残体 + 覆膜 Residue removal/residue retention + film mulching	-2.667	0.198	-7.049	1.715
去除残体/去除残体 + 覆膜 Residue removal/residue removal + film mulching	5.333	0.023	0.951	9.715
保留残体+覆膜/去除残体 + 覆膜 Residue retention + film mulching/residue removal + film mulching	8.000	0.003	3.618	12.382

Fig. 4 Distribution of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) scores for soil bacterial taxa at multiple taxonomic levels under mowed Spartina alterniflora residue retention and plastic film mulching treatments (LDA score (log10) > 4, P < 0.05)

Fig. 5 Correlation analysis between dominant bacterial genera and soil physicochemical factors. (A) Spearman correlation analysis; (B) Distance-based redundancy bd-RDA analysis. In Fig. A, * P < 0.05; ** P < 0.01. EC, Soil electrical conductivity; TN, Total nitrogen; TC, Total carbon; SOC, Soil organic carbon; NH4+-N, Ammonium nitrogen; AK, Available potassium; AP, Available phosphorus. In Fig. B, A-D correspond to the four treatment groups, and the numbers 1-3 represent the replicates of each treatment group.

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