Light grazing alleviates aeolian erosion–deposition effects on microbial communities in a semi-arid grassland

作     者：Mingming Cui Biqi Bao Yipu Wu Nan Hui Mai-He Li Shiqiang Wan Shijie Han Feirong Ren Junqiang Zheng 

作者机构：International Joint Research Laboratory for Global Change Ecology School of Life Sciences Henan University Yellow River Floodplain Ecosystems Research Station School of Life Sciences Henan University School of Agriculture and Biology Shanghai Jiao Tong University Forest Dynam-ics Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL Key Laboratory of Geographical Processes and Ecological Security in Changbai Mountains Ministry of Education School of Geographical Sciences Northeast Normal University School of Life Science Hebei University 

出 版 物：《Ecological Processes》 (生态过程(英文))

年 卷 期：2024年第2期

页      面：148-164页

学科分类：090503[农学-草业科学] 0909[农学-草学] 0905[农学-畜牧学] 09[农学] 0903[农学-农业资源与环境] 

基　　金：financially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41930643, 42273084, and 41673077) Key Scientific Research Projects of Henan Province (21B180011) 

摘      要：Background Soil erosion affects the stability of terrestrial ecosystems and ecosystem services by directly or indirectly impacting the cycling of soil materials and energy and reducing the fertility of grassland soils. However, research on microbial adaptation to grazing and soil erosion is limited, particularly in relation to grassland ecosystem restora-tion. Here, we assess microbial communities subjected to simulated soil erosion and grazing in a semi-arid grassland of Inner Mongolia, *** No significant change was observed in soil variables. However, the structure of the soil microbial commu-nity underwent significant changes as a result of soil erosion and soil erosion plus grazing, leading to a significant increase in the relative abundance of Cyanobacteria(116.80% vs 116.38%). Wind erosion and deposition contributed to an increase in the network complexity of soil bacterial and fungal communities. However, much of this effect was alleviated by grazing. Simultaneously, aeolian processes and grazing regulate soil microbial community assembly, leading to inconsistent patterns of change in bacterial and fungal communities. Under wind erosion and deposi-tion, the relative contribution of deterministic processes(4.44% vs 31.11%) in bacterial communities increased, while the relative contribution of stochastic processes(2.23% vs 20%) in fungal communities reduced. Grazing resulted in a decrease in the relative contribution of deterministic processes(8.89%) in the bacterial community and an increase in the relative contribution of stochastic processes(8.89%) in the fungal *** This study presents a comprehensive investigation of the response of soil microbial communities to aeolian erosion–deposition and grazing in a semi-arid grassland. Our findings indicate that microbial communities in the semi-arid grassland show resistance to external disturbances and that light grazing mitigates the effects of aeo-lian erosion–deposition on microbial co