Dual-Speed Reassembly of Soil Microbial Networks Under Intensive Ornamental Planting: Divergent Stability Strategies of Bacteria and Fungi in Botanical Garden Cinnamon Soils
Intensive ornamental planting is increasingly prevalent in urban green spaces, yet its effects on soil microbial community assembly and interaction networks remain poorly understood. Here, we examined shifts in soil properties, microbial diversity, community composition, and interaction networks across successive planting cycles. Bacterial alpha-diversity remained relatively stable, whereas fungal communities showed pronounced sensitivity to early planting stages. Beta-diversity analyses revealed that bacterial community composition was jointly influenced by planting stage and site type, while fungal communities were primarily structured by site characteristics. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed contrasting reassembly trajectories between microbial groups. Bacterial networks exhibited increasing complexity and modularity, indicating enhanced interaction intensity and competitive structuring under intensive management. In contrast, fungal networks displayed reduced connectivity but maintained or recovered modular organization, suggesting structural buffering. Notably, keystone taxa remained taxonomically conserved, indicating that network reorganization was driven by interaction rewiring rather than species turnover. We propose a dual-speed reassembly framework in which bacteria function as fast-responding components with dynamic interaction networks, whereas fungi act as slow-buffering, structurally persistent elements. This decoupling of short-term functional responsiveness and long-term stability provides new insights into how intensive management reshapes soil microbiomes in botanical garden ecosystems.
Authors
- Gan Xiao
- Tai Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4651-175X)
- R. Wang
- Yu Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2013-4829)
- Dakang Zhou
- Baibing Wang
- Han Quan
Institutions
- Beijing Botanical Garden (CN)
- State Forestry and Grassland Administration (CN)
- Institute of Apiculture Research (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Microorganisms
- Published
- 2026-04-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms14040865
- Primary Topic
- Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00