RESPONSE OF SOIL FUNGAL COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND DIVERSITY TO SALINE WATER IRRIGATION IN ALLUVIAL GREY DESERT SOILS

Saline water irrigation can change the soil environment, thereby influencing soil microbial processes. In this study, a nine years saline water irrigation experiment had been conducted in Shihezi, Xinjiang Province, China, to investigate the composition and diversity of the soil fungal community. Our results showed that irrigation with either brackish or saline water significantly increased soil salinity and Available Phosphorus, but reduced soil pH, SOC, TN, and Available Kalium. Saline water irrigation significantly decreased operational taxonomic units (OTUs), ACE, Chao1, and Shannon indices but increased Simpson indices. The dominant fungal phyla were Ascomycota, Mortierellomycota, Basidiomycota, Glomeromycota, and Chytridiomycota. Irrigation with either brackish or saline water significantly reduced the abundance of Mortierellomycota but increased the abundance of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. In addition, saline water irrigation significantly decreased the relative abundance of Glomeromycota compared with fresh water irrigation, but significantly increased the relative abundance of Chytridiomycota. Redundancy analysis (RDA) results showed that salinity (ECe) was the primary factors driving the changes in soil fungal community composition. LEfSe analysis demonstrated fungal potential biomarkers decreased by saline water irrigation. These results increase our understanding of soil ecological processes in soils that are increasingly salinized.