Effects of Land Use Conversion from upland to Paddy Field on Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaeal and Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacterial Communities in Jianghan Plain, Hubei Province, China

This study investigated the relationships between genes of two key microorganisms (Arch-amoA and Bac-amoA,) and soil physicochemical properties for the upland conversion to paddy field in Jianghan plains of China with three treatments viz., upland, paddy field and upland to paddy field. Ammonia oxidizing archaea and soil properties such as ammonium nitrate, pH, and nitrate contents showed a positive correlation with upland and upland to paddy field treatments. While on the other hand, total available nitrogen was negatively correlated with paddy field treatment. Redundancy analysis of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and soil properties like pH, ammonium nitrate, and nitrate contents were positively correlated with the upland and upland to paddy field treatments whereas the paddy field treatment was negatively correlated with the total available nitrogen. Total number of operational taxonomic unit numbers shared by three treatments in the archaeal community was 41, whereas 134 for bacterial community. The land conversion from upland to paddy field significantly altered the structure of bacterial and archaeal ammonia oxidizing community simultaneously.