Abundance and diversity of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria in the rhizosphere soil of three plants in the Ebinur Lake wetland

Ammonia oxidation is carried out by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA). The Ebinur Lake wetland is the best example of a temperate arid zone wetland ecosystem in China. Soil samples were collected from rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil containing Halocnemum strobilaceum (H and H’), Phragmites australis (R and R’), and Kareliniacaspia (K and K’) to study the relationship between environmental factors and the community structure of AOB and AOA. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the AOA sequences belonged to the Nitrosopumilus and Nitrososphaera clusters. AOB were grouped into Nitrosospira sp. and Nitrosomonas sp. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) results showed that the AOA abundance ranged from 2.09 × 104 to 2.94 × 105 gene copies/g soil. The highest number of AOA was detected in sample K, followed by samples R and H. AOB abundance varied between 2.91 × 105 to 1.05 × 106 gene copies/g soil, which was higher than that of AOA. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that electrical conductivity (EC), pH, and NH4+-N might influence the community structure of AOA and AOB. AOB might play a more crucial role in ammonia oxidation based on its higher diversity and abundance compared to AOA in the Ebinur Lake wetland in Xinjiang.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author