Spatial differences in soil microbial diversity caused by pH‐driven organic phosphorus mineralization

Abstract Microbial diversity response to abiotic and biotic factors provides a sensitive indicator for estimating the potential stability and degradation of soils in agro‐ecosystems. To determine the effects of pH on organic phosphorus mineralization and microbial diversity, phospholipid fatty acid analysis, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and multiple ecological analyses were performed. Significant correlations were found between phosphorus components and alkaline phosphatase, phytase, and pH, between phoD and phytase, between bpp and alkaline phosphatase. phoD and bpp gene abundance presented significant linear relationships with soil pH and microbial diversity. Abiotic and biotic factors explained 25.1% of the total variation in organic phosphorus‐mineralizing‐related gene abundance, and abiotic factors accounted for 13.2% of the total variation in microbial community composition. Soil pH was the determinant, accounting for 11.2 and 7.7% of the total variation in organic phosphorus‐mineralizing‐related gene abundance and microbial community composition, respectively. Our results emphasized that the phosphorus components, pH, and organic phosphorus‐mineralizing‐related gene abundance were responsible for organic phosphorus‐mineralizing‐related enzyme activity. To our knowledge, this is the first report that pH is a key factor in directly and indirectly determining organic phosphorus‐mineralizing‐related gene abundance, which in turn affects microbial diversity, on a large spatial scale. The differences in phosphorus components, enzyme activity, organic phosphorus‐mineralizing‐related gene abundance, microbial community composition and diversity caused by pH might explain crop yield reduction.