ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1654005
This article is part of the Research TopicUnveiling Microbiome Interactions and Functions in Soil HotspotsView all 16 articles
Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Approach: How Do Various Harvesting Strategies Shape Soil Microbial Diversity in Larix gmelinii (Daxinganling Larch) Forests of the Greater Khingan Mountains?
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Forestry, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
- 2National Field Scientific Observation and Research Station of Greater Khingan Forest Ecosystem, Genhe, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study analyzed the effects of six harvesting strategies, including primary forests (PF), shelterwood cutting (SC), clear cutting (CC), optional cutting with low intensity (OCL), optional cutting with moderate intensity (OCM), and optional cutting with high intensity (OCH), on soil microbial diversity in Daxinganling larch forests of the Greater Khingan Range. The results showed that the dominant bacterial and fungal phyla were similar across the different harvesting strategies. As the intensity of OC increased, the relative abundances of Proteobacteria and Basidiomycota increased, whereas that of Ascomycota decreased. The highest bacterial alpha diversity was observed in the PF sample plots, whereas the highest fungal alpha diversity was observed in the SC sample plots. OCH significantly reduced bacterial alpha diversity (p < 0.05), and a negative correlation was observed between OC intensity and bacterial alpha diversity. Harvesting strategies had no significant effect on bacterial or fungal beta diversity. In the harvesting strategy sample plots, 14 biological markers were enriched, including the bacterial family SC_l_84 and fungal genus Coniochaeta. Soil nitrogen, phosphorus, and other physical and chemical properties were significantly correlated with different microbial markers. Soil bacterial and fungal communities have diverse genetic and ecological functions. The bacterial and fungal community networks in the PF sample plots were the most complex and stable. OC reduced the complexity and stability of soil bacterial community networks but had the opposite effect on fungal communities. This study preliminarily analyzed the effects of different harvesting strategies on soil microbial diversity in the Greater Khingan Range Larix gmelinii forest, which has practical significance for the functional recovery and protection of the Greater Khingan Range forest ecosystem.
Keywords: Harvesting1, Larix gmelinii2, Greater Khingan Mountains/Daxinganling3, microbial diversity4, Functional prediction5
Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 06 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Sa, Ta, Zhang, Li, Liu, Gong and Song. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rula Sa, sarula213@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.