Revegetation significantly increased the bacterial-fungal interactions in different successional stages of alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Numerous restoration measures have been implemented to rebuild degraded alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, one of the most fragile regions in the world. Understanding the responses of soil microbes to restoration activities is critical to predict restoration direction and trajectories, as soil microbes play a key role in ecosystem functioning and nutrients cycling. In this study, we identified the effects of revegetation on soil microbial community composition and diversity, and the interaction between bacterial and fungal taxa in different successional stages (early stage, middle stage, late stage) by using a severely degraded grassland as the baseline, and healthy grassland as the target. Our results show that the composition of bacteria at phylum level and fungi at class level were significantly changed between successional stages. The diversity of bacteria at OTU level was significantly decreased, while the diversity of fungal OTUs were not significantly changed with successional stages. Plant and soil properties explained 53.15% variation of bacterial structure and 46.16% variation of fungal structure. Plant community, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and soil pH mainly influence microbial community during recovery process. Bacterial and fungal groups would become more similar to that of the healthy grassland along successional stages, because of the shift in soil resources and plant community. Total links and negative links of bacteria-fungi interaction networks increased along successional stages of revegetated grasslands. Keystone species in each network also changed with successional stages. These findings verified that revegetation could be effective to restore the microbial community of severely degraded grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Automated summary

The study found significant changes in the composition of bacteria and fungi between different successional stages, with bacterial diversity decreasing significantly at the OTU level while fungal diversity remained relatively stable. Plant and soil properties had a significant impact on the microbial community during the recovery process, leading to bacterial and fungal groups becoming more similar to those of healthy grasslands as succession progressed. Additionally, the total links and negative links in bacteria-fungi interaction networks increased along the successional stages, showing the effectiveness of revegetation in restoring severely degraded grassland microbial communities on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.