Abstract
[Truncated] This study aimed to investigate the influence of land use on soil physicochemical properties and bacterial community characteristics in lateritic podosol soils under four land use types on a farming property 100 kilometres north east of Albany, in Wellstead, Western Australia.
Three sites were studied in each of four land-uses; undisturbed native vegetation, 40-year-old pasture, 10-year-old Eucalyptus globulus (blue gum) plantation, and 20-year-old blue gum plantation. Total nitrogen, ammonium, and total phosphorus were greatest in the 10-year-old blue gum land use soils, which had received the most fertiliser inputs in the ten years prior to the experiment and they were least in the native vegetation land use. Nitrate was greatest under pasture and least under native vegetation and 20-year-old blue gums. Manganese, magnesium, copper, boron, and zinc all increased from native vegetation to pasture, 10 and 20-year-old blue gum land uses. Soil organic carbon was significantly greater under plantation land use and lowest in the native vegetation land use. pH ranged from 5.3 to 6.1 and did not differ significantly between land uses.
Characterisation of bacterial communities was based on direct targeting, amplification and sequencing the V3 region of the bacterial 16S rRna gene. Sequences were aligned with the RDP_22 database for identification. 386,718 bacterial sequences were identified, of which 46,665 were matched to a known level of classification. The number of genetic sequences per sample ranged from 3347 to 26,899 (mean 9208). Chao 1 diversity index, phylogenetic distance (PD), and number of OTUs were examined at a rarefaction depth of 3000 sequences per sample. Alpha diversity did not differ significantly with land use, although significant negative correlations were formed between alpha diversity measures and aluminium levels.
Three sites were studied in each of four land-uses; undisturbed native vegetation, 40-year-old pasture, 10-year-old Eucalyptus globulus (blue gum) plantation, and 20-year-old blue gum plantation. Total nitrogen, ammonium, and total phosphorus were greatest in the 10-year-old blue gum land use soils, which had received the most fertiliser inputs in the ten years prior to the experiment and they were least in the native vegetation land use. Nitrate was greatest under pasture and least under native vegetation and 20-year-old blue gums. Manganese, magnesium, copper, boron, and zinc all increased from native vegetation to pasture, 10 and 20-year-old blue gum land uses. Soil organic carbon was significantly greater under plantation land use and lowest in the native vegetation land use. pH ranged from 5.3 to 6.1 and did not differ significantly between land uses.
Characterisation of bacterial communities was based on direct targeting, amplification and sequencing the V3 region of the bacterial 16S rRna gene. Sequences were aligned with the RDP_22 database for identification. 386,718 bacterial sequences were identified, of which 46,665 were matched to a known level of classification. The number of genetic sequences per sample ranged from 3347 to 26,899 (mean 9208). Chao 1 diversity index, phylogenetic distance (PD), and number of OTUs were examined at a rarefaction depth of 3000 sequences per sample. Alpha diversity did not differ significantly with land use, although significant negative correlations were formed between alpha diversity measures and aluminium levels.
| Original language | English |
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| Qualification | Masters |
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| Award date | 7 Jun 2017 |
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| Publication status | Unpublished - 2016 |
Access to Document
- THESIS - MASTER OF SCIENCE - LEIGHTON Sylvia Madeline - 2016
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