Effects of plant coverage on shrub fertile islands in the Upper Minjiang River Valley

作     者：Laiye Qu Zhongbin Wang Yuanyuan Huang Yuxin Zhang Chengjun Song Keming Ma 

作者机构：State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology Research Center for Eco-environmental Science Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing 100085 China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049 China Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology University of Oklahoma Norman 73019 USA Institute of Energy and Environmental Protection Chinese Academy of Agriculture Engineering Beijing 100125 China 

出 版 物：《Science China(Life Sciences)》 (中国科学（生命科学英文版）)

年 卷 期：2018年第61卷第3期

页      面：340-347页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 0830[工学-环境科学与工程（可授工学、理学、农学学位）] 07[理学] 0713[理学-生态学] 

基　　金：supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2017YFC0504003) the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31170581) 

主　　题：植物恢复 灌木 山谷 土壤性质 微生物 物理化学 土壤碳 土壤水 

摘      要：The patchy distribution of vegetation in dry land results in well-documented fertile islands. However, the response of shrub fertile islands to plant recovery and the underlying mechanisms, such as the linkage plant and soil properties, remain unknown.We sampled soils from areas with three different plant coverages(25%, 45%, and 75%) and three of their adjacent inter-plants to investigate soil physicochemical and microbial properties in the upper Minjiang River arid valley. The results showed that these factors were influenced by the persistence of plants that contrasted with the inter-plant interspaces. We found fertile islands in under-plant soil that were enhanced with increasing plant coverage, from 25% to 45% and 75%; however, there were no significant differences between 45% and 75% plant coverage apart from the soil clay content and the fungi to bacteria ratio. The soil microbial communities in under-plant soil were strongly influenced by the total soil carbon(TC), soil organic carbon(SOC),and available nitrogen(AN), whereas the microbial communities in inter-plant soil were primarily constrained by the AN and available phosphorous(AP). Moreover, the inter-plant soil properties, including gravimetric soil water content, pH, electrical conductivity(EC), and soil C:N ratio, were also strongly influenced by adjacent vegetation, which suggested that fertile islands may be beneficial for plant recovery in this region.