Abstract:
The CO
2-induced rhizospheric microbes response is essential to soil carbon cycling. In order to investigate the interactive effects of elevated CO
2(eCO
2) and soybean cultivars on the abundance of rhizosphere microorganisms in Northeast China, we conducted an OTC (open top chamber) experiment using 4 soybean cultivars (i. e. Xiaohuangjin, Suinong 8 hao, Suinong 14 and Heinong 45) grown in a Mollisol under ambient CO
2 (390 ppm) and eCO
2 (550 ppm), respectively. Also, we used Real-time quantitative PCR targeting 16S rRNA, ITS and
nirS genes in the experiment. The results showed that the copy numbers of 16S rRNA gene were significantly affected by elevated CO
2 (
p=0.006) and soybean cultivars (
p=0.013). The elevated CO
2 increased the abundance of bacteria regardless of soybean cultivars, while the interactive effects of elevated CO
2 and soybean cultivars on the abundance of bacteria were not significant. The elevated CO
2, soybean cultivars and their interactive effects on the fungal abundance were all significant (
p<0.001), which indicated that fungi was more sensitive than bacteria to the elevated CO
2. On the other hand, the elevated CO
2 (
p=0.169), soybean cultivars(
p=0.404) and their interactive effects (
p=0.059) on the copy numbers of denitrification bacterial
nirS gene were all not significant.