Impact of tropical lowland rainforest conversion into rubber and oil palm plantations on soil microbial communities

Focusing on Sumatra, a hotspot of tropical lowland rainforest transformation, we investigated effects of the conversion of rainforests into rubber agroforests (jungle rubber), intensive rubber, and oil palm plantations on the communities of litter and soil microorganisms and identified factors responsible for these changes. Litter basal respiration, microbial biomass, total bacterial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs), and fungal PLFAs did not vary significantly with rainforest conversion. In litter of converted ecosystems, the concentration of certain PLFAs including the Gram-negative bacteria marker PLFA cy17:0 and the Gram-positive bacteria marker PLFA i17:0 was reduced as compared to rainforest, whereas the concentration of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) marker neutral lipid fatty acid (NLFA) 16:1 omega 5c increased. As indicated by redundancy analysis, litter pH and carbon concentration explained most of the variation in litter microbial community composition. In soil, microbial biomass did not vary significantly with rainforest conversion, whereas basal respiration declined. Total PLFAs and especially that of Gram-negative bacteria decreased, whereas PLFA i17:0 increased with rainforest conversion. The concentration of fungal PLFAs increased with rainforest conversion, whereas NLFA 16:1 omega 5c did not change significantly. Redundancy analysis indicated that soil pH explained most of the variation in soil microbial community composition. Overall, the data suggest that conversion of rainforests into production systems results in more pronounced changes in microbial community composition in soil as compared to litter. In particular, the response of fungi and bacteria was more pronounced in soil, while the response of AMF was more pronounced in litter. Notably, only certain bacterial markers but not those of saprotrophic fungi and AMF were detrimentally affected by rainforest conversion.