Salt damage has increasingly gained attention as it turned out to be significantly devastating the productivity of agricultural lands all over the world, and it is critical to understand how the plant and soils together to respond to the accumulation of salt stress.
In previous research, the bacteria 16S data has only been observed in a snapshot, which means we could only compare the microbiome composition before/after the disturbance. However, recent studies suggested that the microbial community composition could vary over time, and the transient state is critical in controlling the microbial community (Fukami and Nakajima, 2013).
In our study, we adapted hydroponics set up to investigate how the community dynamics of microbiome change over time with/without the association with plants, while experiencing press disturbance by salt and reaching to a quasi-equilibrium state. For model plants and microbiome, we used plants (Vigna species) and the microbiome from the environment with/without the tolerance with high salinity.
With the observation in the community dynamics of the microbiome, we examined (1) how species composition fluctuates over time, (2) how salt disturbance affects community composition, (3) how different plant species affect microbial transient dynamics.