Microbial community structure and the relationship with soil carbon and nitrogen in an original Korean pine forest of Changbai Mountain, China

BACKGROUND: The broad-leaved Korean pine mixed forest is an important and typical component of a global temperate forest. Soil microbes are the main driver of biogeochemical cycling in this forest ecosystem and have complex interactions with carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) components in the soil. RESULTS: We investigated the vertical soil microbial community structure in a primary Korean pine-broadleaved mixed forest in Changbai Mountain (from 699 to 1177 m) and analyzed the relationship between the microbial community and both C and N components in the soil. The results showed that the total phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) of soil microbes and Gram-negative bacteria (G-), Gram-positive bacteria (G+), fungi (F), arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and Actinomycetes varied significantly (p < 0.05) at different sites (elevations). The ratio of fungal PLFAs to bacterial PLFAs (F/B) was higher at site H1, and H2. The relationship between microbial community composition and geographic distance did not show a distance-decay pattern. The coefficients of variation for bacteria were maximum among different sites (elevations). Total soil organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), soil water content (W), and the ratio of breast-height basal area of coniferous trees to that of broad-leaved tree species (RBA) were the main contributors to the variation observed in each subgroup of microbial PLFAs. The structure equation model showed that TOC had a significant direct effect on bacterial biomass and an indirect effect upon bacterial and fungal biomass via soil readily oxidized organic carbon (ROC). No significant relationship was observed between soil N fraction and the biomass of fungi and bacteria. CONCLUSION: The total PLFAs (tPLFA) and PLFAs of soil microbes, including G-, G+, F, AMF, and Actinomycetes, were significantly affected by elevation. Bacteria were more sensitive to changes in elevation than other microbes. Environmental heterogeneity was the main factor affecting the geographical distribution pattern of microbial community structure. TOC, TN, W and RBA were the main driving factors for the change in soil microbial biomass. C fraction was the main factor affecting the biomass of fungi and bacteria and ROC was one of the main sources of the microbial-derived C pool. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12866-019-1584-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.