Journal of Ecology and Rural Environment ›› 2021, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (10): 1281-1291.doi: 10.19741/j.issn.1673-4831.2021.0039

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Review on Soil Microbial Patterns along the Elevation Gradient Based on the Knowledge Mapping Analysis

ZHOU Yu-jie1,2, JIA Xia2,3, ZHAO Yong-hua1,2, WANG Xi1, YE Xuan1, AN Yi-ren1   

  1. 1. College of Land Engineering, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710054, China;
    2. Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Land Consolidation, Xi'an 710054, China;
    3. School of Water and Environment, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710054, China
  • Received:2021-01-21 Online:2021-10-25 Published:2021-10-27

Abstract: Soil microbes are the essential participants in ecosystem processes, controlling the turnover of the largest organic matter pool in the terrestrial biosphere. In recent years, the variations of soil microbial diversity patterns and community structures with the elevation have been extensively studied. "Elevation gradient" and "Soil fertilization" were selected as the keywords, and a total of 717 papers were collected from the "Web of Science" core collection database and CNKI for number of posts analyses, keyword co-occurrence and literature co-citation cluster analyses by using Citespace visual literature. The results show that the research on the response of soil microorganisms to elevation gradients had been growing rapidly since 2000 and there was consistency in the domestic and international research trends. It was found that "forest", "elevation", "soil fungi" and "plant" were the frequency characteristics of keywords, which further indicates that the spatial variation of soil microorganisms was one of the important research directions in forest ecosystems. In addition, soil microbial diversity and community structures showed the following five clear altitudinal distribution patterns at the regional spatial scale:increasing, decreasing, "peak", "U" pattern and no significant changes. Moreover, the environmental driving factors of soil microbial communities were also controversial, including soil nutrients, vegetation specificity and climatic factors. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the distribution change mechanism of soil microbial community and diversity in the future according to the characteristics of the study region, so as to reveal the variation degree of soil characteristics and microbial community at different scales, and further quantify the relationship between soil microbial community and related environmental factors. It provides novel insights for the study of the basic distribution and dynamics of microorganisms in terrestrial ecosystems.

Key words: elevation gradient, soil microorganisms, CiteSpace, driving factors

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