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Wan P, Zhou Z, Yuan Z, Wei H, Huang F, Li Z, Li FM, Zhang F. Fungal community composition changes and reduced bacterial diversity drive improvements in the soil quality index during arable land restoration. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2024; 244:117931. [PMID: 38103774 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117931] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Revised: 12/08/2023] [Accepted: 12/10/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Arable land is facing the growing challenge of land degradation due to intensive use and this is beginning to affect global food security. However, active and passive restoration can improve soil characteristics and reshape microbial communities. Despite the increasing focus on changes in microbial communities during restoration, the mechanisms underlying how microbes drive the soil quality index (SQI) in arable land restoration remain unclear. In this study, we selected conventional farmland (CF, heavily intensified) and two restoration strategies (AR, artificial restoration; NR, natural restoration), with the same context (including soil texture, climate, etc.), and measured the microbial indicators over 2 years to investigate the mechanisms driving SQI improvement on restored arable land. The AR and NR treatments resulted in a 50% and 58% increase in SQI, respectively, compared to CF as soil nutrient levels increased, resulting in higher microbial biomasses and enzyme activities. Microbial abundance on the AR land was approximately two times greater than on the NR land due to the introduction of legumes. Bacterial diversity declined, while fungi developed in a more diverse direction under the restoration strategies. The AR and NR areas were mainly enriched with rhizobium (Microvirga, Bradyrhizobium), which contribute to healthy plant growth. The pathogenic fungi (Gibberella, Fusarium, Volutella) were more abundant in the CF area and the plant pathogen guild was about five times higher in the restored areas. Following arable land restoration, microbial life history strategies shifted from r-to K-strategists due to the higher proportion of recalcitrant SOC (DOC/SOC decreased by 18%-30%). The altered microbial community in the restored areas created new levels of functionality, with a 2.6%-4.3% decrease in bacterial energy metabolism (oxidative phosphorylation, C fixation, and N metabolism decreased by 7%, 4%, and 6%, respectively). Structural equation modelling suggested that restoration strategy affected SQI either directly by increasing total soil nutrient levels or indirectly by altering the microbial community and that fungal community composition and bacterial diversity made the largest contributions to SQI. These results provided new insights into soil quality improvement from a microbial perspective and can help guide future arable land restoration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pingxing Wan
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China
| | - Zhongke Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China
| | - Ziqiang Yuan
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China
| | - Huihui Wei
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China
| | - Fuqiang Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China
| | - Zhansheng Li
- Asia Hub, Sanya Institute of Nanjing Agricultural University, Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City, Sanya, Hainan, 572000, China
| | - Feng-Min Li
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China; College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China
| | - Feng Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China.
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Wang C, Wang X, Zhang Y, Morrissey E, Liu Y, Sun L, Qu L, Sang C, Zhang H, Li G, Zhang L, Fang Y. Integrating microbial community properties, biomass and necromass to predict cropland soil organic carbon. ISME COMMUNICATIONS 2023; 3:86. [PMID: 37612426 PMCID: PMC10447565 DOI: 10.1038/s43705-023-00300-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Revised: 08/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/15/2023] [Indexed: 08/25/2023]
Abstract
Manipulating microorganisms to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) in croplands remains a challenge. Soil microbes are important drivers of SOC sequestration, especially via their necromass accumulation. However, microbial parameters are rarely used to predict cropland SOC stocks, possibly due to uncertainties regarding the relationships between microbial carbon pools, community properties and SOC. Herein we evaluated the microbial community properties (diversity and network complexity), microbial carbon pools (biomass and necromass carbon) and SOC in 468 cropland soils across northeast China. We found that not only microbial necromass carbon but also microbial community properties (diversity and network complexity) and biomass carbon were correlated with SOC. Microbial biomass carbon and diversity played more important role in predicting SOC for maize, while microbial network complexity was more important for rice. Models to predict SOC performed better when the microbial community and microbial carbon pools were included simultaneously. Taken together our results suggest that microbial carbon pools and community properties influence SOC accumulation in croplands, and management practices that improve these microbial parameters may increase cropland SOC levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chao Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China.
- Key Laboratory of Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Neutrality, Liaoning Province, Shenyang, 110016, China.
| | - Xu Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Yang Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Ember Morrissey
- Division of Plant and Soil Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, 26506, USA
| | - Yue Liu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Lifei Sun
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Lingrui Qu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Changpeng Sang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Hong Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Guochen Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China.
| | - Lili Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Yunting Fang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
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