Patterns of diversity in soil microbial community along
altitudinal gradient
In the present study, the highest species richness and diversity of
bacterial and fungal communities were observed in the invaded plots at
all the four sampling sites with highest values reaching at KU site
(Fig.3). Yang et al., (2020) observed a similar pattern of species
richness and diversity for soil bacterial communities invaded bySpartina alterniflora and reported a unique bacterial community
composition with highest relative abundance associated with the invasive
plant. The potential of plant invasion to shift the abundance and
diversity of soil microbial communities has been demonstrated by few
recent studies as well (Rodríguez-Caballero et al., 2017; Xiang et al.,
2018). For instance, invasion of Alliaria petiolata significantly
increased fungal richness under field conditions with shifts in soil
microbial community composition (Duchesneau et al., 2021). Similarly, a
distinct microbial community structure was observed among the
rhizospheres of invasive Mikania micrantha , (Yin et al., 2020).
Therefore, our study provides more empirical evidence to generalize the
fact that the rhizosphere of invasive plants generally contains a higher
diversity of microbial communities than uninvaded plots. This could be
possibly attributed to secretion of numerous root exudates and
signalling molecules produced by the invasive plants (Lagos et al.,
2015) as well as the mycorrhizal advantages, root predation shield
benefits and increased attachment niches (Dawkins & Esiobu 2018). In
terms of microbial community relative abundance, the results of NMDS
using the Bray-Curtis similarity index revealed that different sites
were clustered together and formed distinct groups along the altitudinal
gradient (Fig.4). This further substantiates that bacterial and fungal
communities significantly differ in relative abundance at the invaded
and uninvaded plots (Yannarell et al., 2011).