Soil metabolites are critical in regulating the dynamics of ecosystem structure and function, particularly in fragile karst ecosystems. Clarification of response of soil metabolism to vegetation succession in karst areas will contribute to the overall understanding and management of karst soils. Here, we investigated the metabolite characteristics of karst soils with different vegetation stages (grassland, brushwood, secondary forest and primary forest) based on untargeted metabolomics. We confirmed that the abundance and composition of soil metabolites altered with vegetation succession. Of the 403 metabolites we found, 157 had significantly varied expression levels across vegetation soils, including mainly lipids and lipid-like molecules, phenylpropanoids and polyketides, organic acids and derivatives. Certain soil metabolites, such as maltotetraose and bifurcose, were sensitive to vegetation succession, increasing significantly from grassland to brushwood and then decreasing dramatically in secondary and primary forests, making them possible indicators of karst vegetation succession. In addition, soil metabolic pathways, such as galactose metabolism and biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, also changed with vegetation succession. This study characterized the soil metabolic profile in different vegetation stages during karst secondary succession, which would provide new insights for the management of karst soils.
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