Community structure, distribution pattern, and influencing factors of soil Archaea in the construction area of a large-scale photovoltaic power station

The photovoltaic power station in Qinghai has been built for 8 years; however, its impact on the regional soil ecological environment has not been studied in depth. To reveal the structure and distribution pattern of archaeal communities in desert soil under the influence of a large photovoltaic power station, a comparative study was carried out between the soil affected by photovoltaic panels and the bare land samples outside the photovoltaic station in Gonghe, Qinghai Province. The abundance, community structure, diversity, and distribution characteristics of archaea were analyzed by quantitative PCR and Illumina-MiSeq high-throughput sequencing, and the main environmental factors affecting the variation in soil archaeal community were identified by RDA. The contribution rate of environmental factors and human factors to microbial community diversity was quantitatively evaluated by VPA. The results showed that there was no significant difference in soil nutrients and other physicochemical factors between the photovoltaic power station and bare land. Thaumarchaeota was the dominant archaeal phylum in the area, accounting for more than 99% of archaeal phylum, while at the level of genus, Nitrososphaera was the dominant archaeal genera. There was no significant difference in archaeal community structure between and under different types of PV panels. The analysis has shown that the construction of a photovoltaic station has little effect on the community structure of soil archaea in a desert area, and it was speculated that the selection of niche played a leading role in the distribution pattern of soil archaeal community. This study provides the basis for a scientific understanding of the characteristics and distribution patterns of soil archaeal communities affected by the construction of a photovoltaic power station.