Wenping Meng

and 7 more

Studying the interaction mechanism between moss and the environment of karst rock surfaces plays an important role in revealing the succession mechanism and restoration of karst ecosystems.Methods:By comparing the soil fertility, organic acids, microbial diversity, and community composition within the habitat of rocks with or without moss on their surface.Resuils: When moss plants appear on the surface of rocks,the overall contents of soil organic carbon (SOC) SOC and total nitrogen(TN) in rock surface habitats increased, whereas the contents of total phosphorus (TP) and total potassium (TK) decreased. And Hyophila involute increased the content of malic acid and acetic acid in rocky habitats. In addition, the growth rates of various microorganisms were as follows: fungi, 52%; bacteria, 11%; eukaryotes, 78%; Archaea, 27%; and viruses, 146%. The number of carbon-fixing microorganisms increased by 37%, the number of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms increased by 49%, and the number of phosphorus-metabolizing microorganisms increased by 53% in the rocky habitat.Acidimimicrobia_bacterium,Acidimimicrobiaceae_bacterium, Acidimimicrobiales_bacterium, and Iamiaceae_bacterium_SCSIO_58843 were significantly positively correlated with the potassium content in the soil. Alphaprotoobjective_bacterium, Solirubrobacteriales_bacterium, and Betaproteobjective_bacterium were significantly positively correlated with the succinic acid content in the soil. Chloroflexi_bacterium was significantly positively correlated with the oxalic acid content in the soil.Conclusions: Bryophytes can alter the composition and structure of microbial communities on rock surfaces, increasing the number of microorganisms related to nitrogen fixation, carbon sequestration, phosphorus metabolism, as well as soil nitrogen, organic carbon, and malic acid content, promoting the positive succession of rock surface ecosystems.