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Silva DF, Mazza Rodrigues JL, Erikson C, Silva AMM, Huang L, Araujo VLVP, Matteoli FP, Mendes LW, Araujo ASF, Pereira APA, Melo VMM, Cardoso EJBN. Grazing exclusion-induced changes in soil fungal communities in a highly desertified Brazilian dryland. Microbiol Res 2024; 285:127763. [PMID: 38805979 DOI: 10.1016/j.micres.2024.127763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2023] [Revised: 03/09/2024] [Accepted: 05/11/2024] [Indexed: 05/30/2024]
Abstract
Soil desertification poses a critical ecological challenge in arid and semiarid climates worldwide, leading to decreased soil productivity due to the disruption of essential microbial community processes. Fungi, as one of the most important soil microbial communities, play a crucial role in enhancing nutrient and water uptake by plants through mycorrhizal associations. However, the impact of overgrazing-induced desertification on fungal community structure, particularly in the Caatinga biome of semiarid regions, remains unclear. In this study, we assessed the changes in both the total fungal community and the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community (AMF) across 1. Natural vegetation (native), 2. Grazing exclusion (20 years) (restored), and 3. affected by overgrazing-induced degradation (degraded) scenarios. Our assessment, conducted during both the dry and rainy seasons in Irauçuba, Ceará, utilized Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) gene sequencing via Illumina® platform. Our findings highlighted the significant roles of the AMF families Glomeraceae (∼71% of the total sequences) and Acaulosporaceae (∼14% of the total sequences) as potential key taxa in mitigating climate change within dryland areas. Moreover, we identified the orders Pleosporales (∼35% of the total sequences) and Capnodiales (∼21% of the total sequences) as the most abundant soil fungal communities in the Caatinga biome. The structure of the total fungal community differed when comparing native and restored areas to degraded areas. Total fungal communities from native and restored areas clustered together, suggesting that grazing exclusion has the potential to improve soil properties and recover fungal community structure amid global climate change challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danilo F Silva
- Laboratory of Soil Microbiology, Soil Science Department, 'Luiz de Queiroz' College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil; Soil EcoGenomics Laboratory, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
| | - Jorge L Mazza Rodrigues
- Soil EcoGenomics Laboratory, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA, USA; Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Christian Erikson
- Soil EcoGenomics Laboratory, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Antonio M M Silva
- Laboratory of Soil Microbiology, Soil Science Department, 'Luiz de Queiroz' College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Laibin Huang
- Department of Biology, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Victor L V P Araujo
- Laboratory of Soil Microbiology, Soil Science Department, 'Luiz de Queiroz' College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Filipe P Matteoli
- Laboratory of Microbial Bioinformatic, Faculty of Sciences, São Paulo State University (Unesp), Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Lucas W Mendes
- Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil
| | | | | | | | - Elke J B N Cardoso
- Laboratory of Soil Microbiology, Soil Science Department, 'Luiz de Queiroz' College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil
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Li Y, Zhan Y. Short-term restoration effects of ecological projects detected using the turning point method in the Three River Headwater Region, China. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1239417. [PMID: 37900732 PMCID: PMC10602752 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1239417] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Accepted: 09/26/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023]
Abstract
The Three River Headwater Region (TRHR) is an important river source area providing important ecological functions. Decades ago, climate change and human activities severely degraded the ecosystem in the TRHR. To restore vegetation, a series of ecological projects have been implemented since 1989. Using net primary productivity (NPP) data from 1988 to 2012, a sequential Mann-Kendall trend test (SQ-MK) method was applied to identify the turning point of vegetation NPP. This approach was able to represent the critical response time of the vegetation to important disturbances. A 3-year time window was set after the implementation of one ecological project to detect and analyze its short-term effects. The ecological projects included the Yangtze River Basin Shelterbelt System Construction Project (YRCP), the TRHR Nature Reserve Construction Project (TNR), the Returning Grazing Land to Grassland Project (RGLGP), and the first phase of the Ecological Conservation and Restoration Project of the TRHR (ECRP). Our results showed that the vegetation in the TRHR responded positively to restoration: 89% of pixels showed an increasing trend and 54% of pixels underwent an abrupt change. The accelerated growth type accounted for the highest proportion among all types of detected turning points. In the ECRP's window, the positive turns rose rapidly, from 41% in 2005 to 86% in 2008, and it showed the most balanced restoration effects across grasslands. The alpine meadow and montane meadow restoration was largely influenced by the ECRP and the RGLGP (both >40%). The alpine steppe restoration was mainly attributed to the ECRP (68%). On the county scale, the positive turns in Yushu at the source of the Yangtze River mainly benefited from the RGLGP (56%), while the positive turns in Maduo at the source of the Yellow River benefited from the ECRP (77%). Nangqian, Tanggula and Zaduo County were still in need of intervention for restoration (< 3%). The results of the study can enhance our understanding of the spatio-temporal distribution of the short-term ecological benefits of different ecological projects, thus provide a scientific and timely reference for future planning and adjustment of the conservation and restoration projects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuzhe Li
- Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yue Zhan
- Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Guo C, Wesche K, Mărgărint MC, Nowak A, Dembicz I, Wu J. Climate overrides fencing and soil mineral nutrients to affect plant diversity and biomass of alpine grasslands across North Tibet. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:1024954. [PMID: 36570963 PMCID: PMC9773210 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1024954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 11/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Overgrazing and warming are thought to be responsible for the loss of species diversity, declined ecosystem productivity and soil nutrient availability of degraded grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau. Mineral elements in soils critically regulate plant individual's growth, performance, reproduction, and survival. However, it is still unclear whether plant species diversity and biomass production can be improved indirectly via the recovery of mineral element availability at topsoils of degraded grasslands, via grazing exclusion by fencing for years. METHODS To answer this question, we measured plant species richness, Shannow-Wiener index, aboveground biomass, and mineral element contents of Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Zn, K and P at the top-layer (0 - 10 cm) soils at 15 pairs of fenced vs grazed matched sites from alpine meadows (n = 5), alpine steppes (n = 6), and desert-steppes (n = 4) across North Tibet. RESULTS Our results showed that fencing only reduced the Shannon-Wiener index of alpine meadows, and did not alter aboveground biomass, species richness, and soil mineral contents within each grassland type, compared to adjacent open sites grazed by domestic livestock. Aboveground biomass first decreased and then increased along with the gradient of increasing Ca content but did not show any clear relationship with other mineral elements across the three different alpine grassland types. More than 45% of the variance in plant diversity indices and aboveground biomass across North Tibet can be explained by the sum precipitation during plant growing months. Structural equation modelling also confirmed that climatic variables could regulate biomass production directly and indirectly via soil mineral element (Ca) and plant diversity indices. DISCUSSION Overall, the community structure and biomass production of alpine grasslands across North Tibet was weakly affected by fencing, compared to the robst climatic control. Therefore, medium-term livestock exclusion by fencing might have limited contribution to the recovery of ecosystem structure and functions of degraded alpine grasslands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chenrui Guo
- Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
- School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Karsten Wesche
- Department of Botany, Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz, Görlitz, Germany
- International Institute (IHI) Zittau, Technische Universität Dresden, Zittau, Germany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Mihai Ciprian Mărgărint
- Department of Geography, Geography and Geology Faculty, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Iaşi, Romania
| | - Arkadiusz Nowak
- Botanical Garden Center for Biological Diversity Conservation in Powsin, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
- Institute of Biology, University of Opole, Opole, Poland
| | - Iwona Dembicz
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Conservation, Institute of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Jianshuang Wu
- Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Geography, Geography and Geology Faculty, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Iaşi, Romania
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Qu J, Wang Y, Kong Y, Zhu H, Yu Y, Zhong L. Effect of chronic traffic noise on behavior and physiology of plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae). Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.1065966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
During the last two decades, numerous studies have shown the effects of traffic noise on animal vocal communication. However, studies on the influences of traffic noise on wildlife behavior and physiology are scarce. In the present study, we experimentally manipulated the traffic noise exposure of plateau pika, a native small mammal widely distributed in the alpine meadow of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, to explore the effects of traffic noise exposure on its behavior and physiology. We showed that noise exposure increased the pika’s exploration and cortisol concentration (CORT) but decreased the resting metabolic rate (RMR). In addition, the relationships between RMR and exploration or CORT appeared under traffic noise treatment. This study suggests that traffic noise plays a large role in the behavior and physiology of plateau pikas and may have a long-term negative effect on the fitness of rodent populations. Generalizing these non-lethal effects to different taxa is crucial for the conservation and management of biodiversity in this increasingly noisy world.
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Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi community in soils under desertification and restoration in the Brazilian semiarid. Microbiol Res 2022; 264:127161. [DOI: 10.1016/j.micres.2022.127161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2022] [Revised: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 08/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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