Soil Moisture and Nutrients Regulate Bacterial Communities in Chromite Mining Restoration Areas on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
Source abstract
Abstract
Mining activities on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) have resulted in remarkable damage to the local ecosystem. The ecological restoration of these mining areas is a slow and intricate process, and the re-establishment of soil microorganisms is one of its most important aspects. However, previous studies have seldom investigated the impact of chromite mining on soil organisms, nor the variations in these populations across different ecological restoration durations. In this study, we investigate the impact of soil physicochemical properties on soil microorganisms in chromite mining areas and analyze the variations between recently restored areas (<5 years, NMs) and established restoration areas (>10 years, OMs). The results indicate that (i) chromite mining significantly increases soil bulk density (SBD), pH, electrical capacity (EC), total chromium (TCr), and hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)), while decreasing soil nutrient levels, including total and available C, N, and P (TC, TN, TP, SOC, AvN, and AvP). These impacts are particularly pronounced in NMs, where the concentrations of TCr and Cr(VI) are 1430.4 ± 421.4 mg kg−1 and 12.62 ± 5.73 mg kg−1, respectively. With increasing ecological restoration duration, TCr and Cr(VI) decreased by 85.4% and 91.4% in OMs (p < 0.05). (ii) Chromite mining decreases the abundance and alpha diversity of soil microbial communities, leading to larger populations of the genera Pseudarthrobacter and Gaiella than in control areas. These effects are also most pronounced in NMs and mitigated in OMs. Soil moisture and nutrients are the primary positive factors driving the soil microbial community assembly. (iii) The decline in soil microbial community abundance and increase in Cr(VI) concentration in former mining areas cause a decrease in the enzymatic activities of amylase, urease, and alkaline phosphatase, resulting in a nutrient-deficient environment, particularly in NMs, and less so in OMs. These findings can provide a reference for the ecological restoration of former chromite mining areas on the QTP.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Chromium effects and bioremediation · Heavy metals in environment · Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Faculty of Land Resources Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China
Anhui Provincial Geological and Mineral Exploration Bureau 332 Geology Team, Huangshan 245000, China
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, China
Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China · Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province
References (49)
Show source-provided references
1. Scaling and stoichiometry of seed nitrogen and phosphorus across Chinese grasslands
2. Investigation of the Enhancement of Ecological Substrates in Areas of Abandoned Mining on the Tibetan Plateau10.1007/s42729-026-03017-x ↗
3. Wang, D., Zhou, H., Zuo, J., Chen, P., She, Y., Yao, B., Dong, S., Wu, J., Li, F., and Njoroge, D.M. (2022). Responses of Soil Microbial Metabolic Activity and Community Structure to Different Degraded and Restored Grassland Gradients of the Tibetan Plateau. Front. Plant Sci., 13.10.3389/fpls.2022.770315 ↗
4. Soil pH and total phosphorus regulate bacterial community assembly in slope restoration areas of the Tibetan Plateau’s metal mining areas10.1016/j.envres.2025.121432 ↗
5. Biotic and abiotic drivers of soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus and metal dynamic changes during spontaneous restoration of Pb-Zn mining wastelands10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.137818 ↗
6. The role of vegetation restoration in shaping the structure and stability of soil bacterial community of alpine mining regions10.1007/s11104-025-07364-z ↗
7. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (2023). Ecological Protection Law of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau of the People’s Republic of China, Order No. 5 of the President of the People’s Republic of China.
8. Perrow, M.R., and Davy, A.J. (2002). Handbook of Ecological Restoration, Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511549984 ↗
9. Liu, D., Song, X., Liu, Y., and Wang, C. (2023). Effects of phosphorus application on soil phosphorus forms and phoD-harboring microbial communities in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Front. Ecol. Evol., 11.10.3389/fevo.2023.1131408 ↗
10. Effects of modified organic material addition on soil and microbial communities in ecologically restored engineering slopes of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau: A mesocosm study10.1016/j.eti.2024.103612 ↗
11. Early-successional vegetation changes after roadside prairie restoration modify processes related with soil functioning by changing microbial functional diversity10.1016/j.soilbio.2011.02.014 ↗
12. The contribution of microbial necromass to soil organic carbon and influencing factors along a variation of habitats in alpine ecosystems10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171126 ↗
13. Heavy metals and soil microbes10.1007/s10311-016-0587-x ↗
14. Anthropedogenesis in coal mine overburden; the need for a comprehensive, fundamental biogeochemical approach10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164515 ↗
15. Xu, C., Kuang, S., He, L., Wang, C., and Zu, Y. (2023). Effects of Changing Restoration Years on Soil Nutrient Traits and Plant Community Diversity in a Phosphate Mining Area. Forests, 14.10.3390/f14071468 ↗
16. Zhang, J., Mao, X., Yu, H., Jin, X., Zhang, L., Du, K., Jin, Y., Yang, Y., and Wang, X. (2025). Soil Microbial Community Characteristics and Influencing Factors in Alpine Marsh Wetlands with Different Degradation Levels in Qilian Mountain National Park, Qinghai, China. Biology, 14.10.3390/biology14060598 ↗
17. Influences of revegetation type and age on soil C-, N- and P- cycling genes in opencast mining areas on the Loess Plateau10.1016/j.apsoil.2024.105649 ↗
18. Trajectories of soil microbial recovery in response to restoration strategies in one of the largest and oldest open-pit phosphate mine in Asia10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115215 ↗
19. A Critical Review of Carbon and Phosphorus Linkages in Soils10.1111/gcb.70804 ↗
20. Cai, Z., Shi, J., Fu, S., Li, F., Lv, L., Liu, Q., Zhang, H., and Bao, S. (2025). Optimized fertilizer-microbe ratios enhance synergistic restoration of alpine mining ecosystems. Front. Microbiol., 16.10.3389/fmicb.2025.1709528 ↗
21. Response of bacterial communities to mining activity in the alpine area of the Tianshan Mountain region, China10.1007/s11356-020-11744-6 ↗
22. P-solubilising bacteria and P-cycling genes drive soil P transformation during green manure decomposition10.1016/j.agee.2025.109875 ↗
23. The Miocene Gangdese porphyry copper belt generated during post-collisional extension in the Tibetan Orogen10.1016/j.oregeorev.2008.09.006 ↗
24. Variation in microbial community structure correlates with heavy-metal contamination in soils decades after mining ceased10.1016/j.soilbio.2018.08.011 ↗
25. Li, X., Sun, X., An, B., Li, S., Li, J., and Wang, C. (2025). Succession Characteristics of Soil Microbial Communities Along Elevational Gradients in the Lhasa River Basin and Analysis of Environmental Driving Factors. Microbiol. Res., 16.10.3390/microbiolres16060117 ↗
26. Effect of plateau pika disturbance on soil organic carbon storage in alpine grasslands is more strongly associated with grasslands degradation levels than pika density10.1016/j.agee.2025.109770 ↗
27. Influence of plateau pika disturbance on soil organic carbon in Zoige alpine grasslands—Based on the role of soil aggregate10.1007/s11629-024-9403-4 ↗
28. Linking soil fungi to bacterial community assembly in arid ecosystems10.1002/imt2.2 ↗
29. Hernández-Cruz, E., Gómez-Godínez, L.J., Ruvalcaba-Gómez, J.M., and Arteaga-Garibay, R.I. (2026). Optimized Method for Efficient DNA Extraction from Agricultural Soils. Methods Protoc., 9.10.3390/mps9010024 ↗
30. Mirror-image T7 transcription of chirally inverted ribosomal and functional RNAs10.1126/science.abm0646 ↗
31. QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data10.1038/nmeth.f.303 ↗
32. Reproducible, interactive, scalable and extensible microbiome data science using QIIME 210.1038/s41587-019-0209-9 ↗
33. DADA2: High-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data10.1038/nmeth.3869 ↗
34. PICRUSt2 for prediction of metagenome functions10.1038/s41587-020-0548-6 ↗
35. Sansupa, C., Wahdan, S.F.M., Hossen, S., Disayathanoowat, T., Wubet, T., and Purahong, W. (2021). Can we use functional annotation of prokaryotic taxa (FAPROTAX) to assign the ecological functions of soil bacteria?. Appl. Sci., 11.10.3390/app11020688 ↗
36. lefser: Implementation of metagenomic biomarker discovery tool, LEfSe, in R10.1093/bioinformatics/btae707 ↗
37. Yang, X., Feng, Q., Zhu, M., Yang, L., Zhang, C., Zhang, J., Wang, Z., and Feng, Y. (2023). Changes in Nutrient-Regulated Soil Microbial Communities in Soils Concomitant with Grassland Restoration in the Alpine Mining Region of the Qilian Mountains. Agronomy, 13.10.3390/agronomy13123052 ↗
38. Guo, Y., Wu, J., and Yu, Y. (2022). Differential Response of Soil Microbial Community Structure in Coal Mining Areas during Different Ecological Restoration Processes. Processes, 10.10.3390/pr10102013 ↗
39. Soil moisture-atmosphere feedback dominates land carbon uptake variability10.1038/s41586-021-03325-5 ↗
40. Role of assisted natural remediation in environmental cleanup10.1016/j.geoderma.2004.01.003 ↗
41. Unraveling iron oxides as abiotic catalysts of organic phosphorus recycling in soil and sediment matrices10.1038/s41467-024-47931-z ↗
42. (2018). Soil Environmental Quality—Risk Control Standard for Soil Contamination of Agricultural Land (Trial) (Standard No. GB 15618-2018).
43. Microbial interactions for nutrient acquisition in soil: Miners, scavengers, and carriers10.1016/j.soilbio.2023.109215 ↗
44. Partitioning the turnover and nested ness components of beta diversity10.1111/j.1466-8238.2009.00490.x ↗
45. Microbial biogeography: From taxonomy to traits10.1126/science.1153475 ↗
46. The relationships between heavy metals and bacterial communities in a coal gangue site10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121136 ↗
47. Profiling multiple heavy metal contamination and bacterial communities surrounding an iron tailing pond in Northwest China10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141827 ↗
48. Acid phosphatases in the context of the global phosphorus cycle10.1007/s11157-026-09770-w ↗
49. Wang, F., Zhang, Z., Lu, Z., Guo, J., Fu, Z., and Sun, J. (2025). Effects of underground coal mining disturbance on bacterial community diversity and its assembly processes. PLoS ONE, 20.10.1371/journal.pone.0322014 ↗