Journal
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
Volume 131, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.108184
Keywords
Precipitation frequency; Degraded grassland; Soil nematode; Soil moisture; Belowground biomass
Categories
Funding
- National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YFC0500602]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [32001182, 31870456]
- Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province [YDZJ202101ZYTS004]
- Science and Technology Project of the Jilin Provincial Education Department [JJKH20211294KJ]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2412020QD021]
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The study found that changes in precipitation frequency had a significant impact on nematodes in different degraded grasslands, with bacterivores being particularly suppressed, while reduced precipitation frequency promoted an increase in plant belowground biomass.
Rainfall patterns in arid and semi-arid regions are characterized by a reduction in rainfall frequency. However, under this novel climatic condition, potential changes in soil nematode community among different degraded grasslands remain unclear. We conducted a mesocosm experiment to test the effects of lower precipitation frequency (decreased by 50% from the long-term mean) on nematodes in the lightly degraded (LDG), moderately degraded (oG) and severely degraded grasslands (SDG). The decreased precipitation frequency treatment significantly reduced the total abundance of nematodes by reducing soil moisture and enhancing moisture variability. Compared with other trophic groups of nematode, bacterivores were more sensitive to the altered precipitation and were significantly suppressed by higher soil moisture variation caused by lower precipitation frequency in the degraded grasslands. The decreased precipitation frequency treatment promoted plant belowground biomass through increasing soil moisture variation, which promoted plant parasites in LDG. However, in oG and SDG, plant parasites were mainly suppressed by higher soil moisture variation under the altered precipitation frequency treatment, and were less impacted by the aforementioned stimulation in plant belowground biomass. The nematode community structure was not affected by the altered precipitation frequency treatment. This study provides experimental data for predicting responses of ecosystem functions to the projected changes in precipitation regimes. These findings are critical for making feasible decisions for the sustainable management of degraded grasslands.
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