Article
Agronomy
Simone Ravetto Enri, Fabio Petrella, Fabrizio Ungaro, Laura Zavattaro, Andrea Mainetti, Giampiero Lombardi, Michele Lonati
Summary: Alpine pastures are agricultural systems providing a high level of ecosystem services, including carbon storage. Research in the north-western Italian Alps has shown that vegetation plays a crucial role in regulating soil organic carbon stocks in these pastures, highlighting their importance in the global context of climate change.
Article
Ecology
Jan Plue, Hans Van Calster, Inger Auestad, Sofia Basto, Renee M. Bekker, Hans Henrik Bruun, Richard Chevalier, Guillaume Decocq, Ulf Grandin, Martin Hermy, Hans Jacquemyn, Anna Jakobsson, Malgorzata Jankowska-Blaszczuk, Rein Kalamees, Marcus A. Koch, Rob H. Marrs, Bryndis Marteinsdottir, Per Milberg, Inger E. Maren, Robin J. Pakeman, Gareth K. Phoenix, Ken Thompson, Vigdis Vandvik, Markus Wagner, Alistair G. Auffret
Summary: This study investigates the potential role of soil seed banks in different habitats in Europe and finds that high seed bank diversity and compositional similarity with the herb layer may act as a functional buffer against the impact of global environmental changes on plant communities. However, climate warming could threaten this capacity. Dormant life-history stages can be important sources of diversity in changing environments, but their ability to buffer change may only be temporary.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Junda Chen, Yuan Yao, Gui Wang, Xiaoyue Zhong, Tianxue Yang, Wei Sun
Summary: 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.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Soil Science
Renske Jongen, S. Emilia Hannula, Jonathan R. De Long, Robin Heinen, Martine Huberty, Katja Steinauer, T. Martijn Bezemer
Summary: This study investigated the plant species-specific microbial communities as mediators of soil legacies, finding that soil legacy effects on decomposition and soil decomposer community composition were most evident shortly after the start of the feedback phase, but disappeared after the establishment of a new plant community. Soil conditioning time and years since disturbance consistently affected soil functions, with no strong effects observed from plant functional group and growth strategy. Recovery time, rather than soil legacy effects, was identified as the most important factor driving soil functions after disturbance.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Jin Zhao, Dandan Fan, Wei Guo, Jianshuang Wu, Xianzhou Zhang, Xuliang Zhuang, Weidong Kong
Summary: This study investigated protist diversity and its driving factors in grassland soils on the Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that soil protist diversity significantly decreased along the gradient of meadow, steppe, and desert. Soil protist diversity was positively correlated with precipitation, plant biomass, and soil nutrients, with precipitation playing a more important role in driving soil protist diversity. The community structure of soil protists gradually shifted along the gradient and was more influenced by precipitation than by plant and soil factors.
Article
Plant Sciences
Xuying Hai, Jianping Li, Jiwei Li, Yulin Liu, Lingbo Dong, Xiaozhen Wang, Wenwen Lv, Zhenhong Hu, Zhouping Shangguan, Lei Deng
Summary: Altered precipitation has significant effects on water use efficiency (WUE) of plants in arid and semi-arid regions. Decreased precipitation generally increases WUE in some grass species, while increased precipitation may decrease WUE in certain plants. Grasses have higher WUE compared to forbs.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Ingrid J. Slette, Alannah Liebert, Alan K. Knapp
Summary: Fire history alters the soil CO2 flux response to individual fires in grassland, with greater post-fire stimulation in grassland burned annually. The flux increase can persist for up to two years after fire, while aboveground net primary production is stimulated by fire but is not influenced by long-term fire frequency.
Article
Microbiology
Qi Qi, Yue Haowei, Zhenhua Zhang, Joy D. Van Nostrand, Linwei Wu, Xue Guo, Jiajie Feng, Mengmeng Wang, Sihang Yang, Jianshu Zhao, Qun Gao, Qiuting Zhang, Mengxin Zhao, Changyi Xie, Zhiyuan Ma, Jin-Sheng He, Haiyan Chu, Yi Huang, Jizhong Zhou, Yunfeng Yang
Summary: The study found that microbial communities, plants, and soil carbon fluxes in alpine grasslands are significantly influenced by climate change. Future soil carbon fluxes can be predicted by microbial carbon-degrading capacities, indicating the importance of microbial traits in ecosystem functioning and carbon dynamics in these environments.
Article
Plant Sciences
Marc W. Schmid, Sofia J. van Moorsel, Terhi Hahl, Enrica De Luca, Gerlinde B. De Deyn, Cameron Wagg, Pascal A. Niklaus, Bernhard Schmid
Summary: The diversity and interactions between plant and soil microbial communities are complex, with plant community history and soil legacy significantly influencing soil microbial composition. Specific plant species compositions are associated with particular soil microbial taxa, impacting below-ground community composition in re-assembled plant communities.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Zhenyin Bai, Lingbo Zheng, Zhenjian Bai, Aomei Jia, Mingjun Wang
Summary: Changes in land use types can have significant impacts on soil properties and microbial community composition. This study analyzed the changes in soil bacterial communities in different land use types in a forest-grassland transition zone in North China using Illumina sequencing. The results showed that long-term cultivation significantly altered soil properties and bacterial community composition. These findings provide data support for land use and grassland ecological protection in the region.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Fengshi Li, Hugjiltu Minggagud, Scott Jarvie, Yonghui Wang, Yongzhi Yan, Xiaoqian Gong, Peng Han, Qing Zhang
Summary: This study investigates the effects of fertilization and mowing on plant, soil bacterial, and soil fungal diversity. The results show that fertilization reduces plant diversity, while fertilization + mowing increases plant diversity. Fertilization and fertilization + mowing have no significant effect on soil bacterial and fungal diversity, but can alter their community structure through changing soil pH.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Soil Science
Jamshid Ansari, Sougata Bardhan, Frieda Eivazi, Stephen H. Anderson, Sidath S. Mendis
Summary: This study investigated the effects of different land use systems and soil moisture variations on soil bacterial communities in the Missouri River Floodplain. The results showed that the land use systems had minimal impact on the structure and diversity of soil bacterial communities, while soil moisture significantly influenced the abundance of certain bacterial phyla.
APPLIED SOIL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Qing Qu, Hongwei Xu, Minggang Wang, Guobin Liu, Sha Xue
Summary: Studying plant-soil feedback (PSF) is important for understanding plant community dynamics. This study examined the temporal variation in PSF at different stages of grassland community succession and identified the influencing factors. The results showed species-specific variation in the PSF pattern, with negative and neutral feedback observed in early- and mid-species, respectively, and positive feedback in late-species. The shoot biomass of early-species was positively correlated with soil nutrients and enzyme activity, while the shoot biomass of late-species was negatively correlated with soil nutrients and enzyme activity in early-species soil. These findings highlight the importance of PSF in plant community succession.
JOURNAL OF PLANT NUTRITION AND SOIL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Zhaogang Liu, Zhi Chen, Meng Yang, Tianxiang Hao, Guirui Yu, Xianjin Zhu, Weikang Zhang, Lexin Ma, Xiaojun Dou, Yong Lin, Wenxing Luo, Lang Han, Mingyu Sun, Shiping Chen, Gang Dong, Yanhong Gao, Yanbin Hao, Shicheng Jiang, Yingnian Li, Yuzhe Li, Shaomin Liu, Peili Shi, Junlei Tan, Yakun Tang, Xiaoping Xin, Fawei Zhang, Yangjian Zhang, Liang Zhao, Li Zhou, Zhilin Zhu
Summary: This study investigates the responses of temperate grassland (TG) and alpine grassland (AG) to climate change by studying carbon (C) fluxes across different regions in China. The results reveal that water factors consistently increase C fluxes, while temperature factors have opposite effects on TG and AG. The study enhances our understanding of C sinks and grassland sensitivity to climate change.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Weina Wang, Huanjun Liu, Lifei Chen, Kadri Koorem, Yingchao Hu, Liang-Jun Hu
Summary: This study examined the effects of natural restoration on the soil microbial community in a sodic-saline grassland in China. The results showed that natural restoration significantly improved the salinization of the grassland and altered the microbial community structure. However, the effects on bacterial and fungal abundance and diversity were different. Bacterial diversity did not change significantly, while fungal diversity increased in the topsoil. Model-selection analysis further confirmed that the changes in soil microbial structure were related to the adaptation of bacteria to improved soil salinity and fungi to improved soil fertility.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Navneet Kaur, Christina Kieffer, Wei Ren, Dafeng Hui
Summary: This study evaluated meta-analyses on the effects of biochar application on soil N2O emissions and proposed a grand mean response ratio (RR) to estimate the overall effect and factors influencing the effects. The results showed that biochar application significantly reduced soil N2O emissions, with the magnitude of reduction ranging from -10.5% to -54.8%. The impacts increased with experimental duration till one and half years and were influenced by biochar application rate and C:N ratio. Meta-analysis provides a more comprehensive estimation, but the inconsistency among studies needs further evaluation.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY BIOENERGY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Taotao Han, Hai Ren, Dafeng Hui, Yanpeng Zhu, Hongfang Lu, Qinfeng Guo, Jun Wang
Summary: Understanding the dominant ecological processes during forest succession is important for forest conservation and restoration. This study investigated the community assembly processes during forest succession in southern China using phylogeny-based and functional trait-based indicators. Results showed that both the community phylogenetic and functional trait structures changed during succession. Environmental factors and species richness had significant effects on the community assembly processes. The relative importance of ecological processes changed during succession, with environmental filtering dominating in early succession and both environmental filtering and competitive exclusion having important effects in later succession.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Kevin Van Sundert, Sebastian Leuzinger, Martin K. -F. Bader, Scott X. Chang, Martin G. De Kauwe, Jeffrey S. Dukes, J. Adam Langley, Zilong Ma, Bertold Marien, Simon Reynaert, Jingyi Ru, Jian Song, Benjamin Stocker, Cesar Terrer, Joshua Thoresen, Eline Vanuytrecht, Shiqiang Wan, Kai Yue, Sara Vicca
Summary: To reduce uncertainty in climate projections, global change experiments have been conducted to mimic future conditions in ecosystems. Syntheses of results across experiments have provided a more general understanding of ecosystem responses to global change. However, independent syntheses have led to contrasting outcomes, highlighting the need for a publicly available database.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Xianyu Yao, Dafeng Hui, Enqing Hou, Junfei Xiong, Shuo Xing, Qi Deng
Summary: Introducing nitrogen-fixing tree species into Eucalyptus plantations can maintain high levels of nitrogen consumption and productivity, but may exacerbate phosphorus limitation. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the impacts of nitrogen fertilization and introducing a nitrogen-fixing tree species on soil phosphorus transformation in a pure Eucalyptus plantation. Nitrogen fertilization significantly increased the occluded phosphorus pool and reduced other phosphorus pools, while introducing the nitrogen-fixing tree species did not change soil pH or the nitrogen:phosphorus ratio in Eucalyptus leaves.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Siyi Sun, Xiaofei Liu, Shengxu Lu, Pingli Cao, Dafeng Hui, Ji Chen, Jianfen Guo, Yusheng Yang
Summary: Climate change has affected precipitation patterns and prolonged drought season in subtropical areas, leading to changes in forest productivity and soil carbon cycling. This study investigated the response of different soil organic carbon fractions to reduced precipitation in a subtropical forest, and found that particulate organic carbon (POC) decreased but mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) increased in the topsoil with reduced precipitation. Additionally, microbial biomass carbon, dissolved organic carbon, fine-root biomass, and mycorrhizal fungal biomass were all reduced. The findings highlight the importance of fine roots in mediating the response of different soil carbon fractions to precipitation reduction in subtropical forests.
Article
Ecology
Jingyi Ru, Shiqiang Wan, Dafeng Hui, Jian Song
Summary: Drought events have significant impacts on terrestrial ecosystems, and understanding recovery mechanisms is critical for predicting ecosystem dynamics. In a 7-year field precipitation experiment, we found that a grassland ecosystem showed different recovery abilities from sustained drought of varying magnitudes. After extreme drought, aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and perennial forb biomass significantly decreased (-43.3% and -83.1%). However, ANPP fully recovered within a year after the drought treatments ended, mainly due to increased soil nitrogen and root biomass. Surprisingly, ANPP increased during the recovery period, exceeding the control, primarily due to increased biomass of perennial grasses. Our study highlights the rapid recovery of grasslands and the importance of community overcompensation in maintaining ecosystem function and stability.
Article
Agronomy
Christina Kieffer, Dafeng Hui, Roser Matamala, Jianwei Li, Donald Tyler, E. Kudjo Dzantor
Summary: This study evaluated the potential of eastern gamagrass (GG) as a complementary feedstock to switchgrass (SG) for biomass production. The results showed that GG had lower biomass yield but higher forage quality compared to SG. Nitrogen fertilizer had a significant impact on biomass yield and forage quality of both crops. This study demonstrated that GG could be used as a dual-purpose crop for bioenergy and forage feedstock.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY BIOENERGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yiwei Lu, Man Wang, Chunyan Yu, Qiong Wu, Zhendu Mao, Huabing Li, Lijuan Ren, Jin Zeng, Peng Xing, Li-Jun Zhou, Shiqiang Wan, Qinglong L. Wu
Summary: Elevation has a strong effect on the aquatic microbiome, affecting the abundance and composition of functional genes. This study found that high-altitude lakes had a higher abundance of antibiotic resistance genes and organic remediation genes compared to low-altitude lakes. Additionally, the composition and abundance of metal resistance genes varied between the two altitudes. The enrichment of functional genes in high-altitude lakes is likely influenced by different microbial communities and long-range atmospheric transport of exogenous genes and pollutants.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Biology
Jiayin Feng, Jingyi Ru, Jian Song, Xueli Qiu, Shiqiang Wan
Summary: Climate warming has a profound impact on terrestrial biosphere, but the effects of asymmetric rising temperatures between daytime and nighttime on soil microbial communities remain unclear. Long-term asymmetric diurnal warming decreased fungal abundance and the ratio of fungi to bacteria, while short-term warming showed no significant effect. The changes in microbial composition had a greater influence on soil respiration than microbial biomass, indicating the importance of microbial composition in modulating carbon release under long-term climate warming.
Article
Ecology
Navneet Kaur, Dafeng Hui, Daniel M. Riccuito, Melanie A. Mayes, Hanqin Tian
Summary: This study investigated the impacts of precipitation changes on corn yield and soil N2O emission. Results showed that both corn yield and soil N2O emission had a linear relationship with precipitation based on long-term data. However, different response patterns were observed for corn yield and soil N2O emission under different precipitation treatments. This study highlights the importance of considering background climate conditions in developing mitigation strategies for reducing soil N2O emissions.
ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Applied
Haona Bao, Huihuang H. Ding, Anto Pradeep Raja Charles, Dafeng Hui, Sudipta Rakshit, Samuel Nahashon, Ying Wu
Summary: The study investigated the use of water-soluble yellow mustard mucilage (WSM) as a wall material in microencapsulation of essential oils (EO), thymol and carvacrol, and polyphenols (PP). Results showed that the addition of WSM improved the stability of the emulsion, encapsulation efficiency, and release pattern of the bioactive compounds. WSM can be utilized as a superior wall material for the encapsulation of bioactive ingredients in food, feed, and pharmaceutical industries.
FOOD HYDROCOLLOIDS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yao Huang, Hongyue Cai, Shuguang Jian, Jun Wang, Johannes Kollmann, Dafeng Hui, Lei Zhang, Hongfang Lu, Hai Ren
Summary: Human disturbance affects the community structure and spatial distribution of forest soil seed banks on coral islands, increasing the diversity, richness, and density of seed banks as well as the richness of invasive species. Human disturbance alters the dispersal pattern of seeds, limiting the outward dispersal of resident species and promoting the inward dispersal of invasive species. Soil properties, plant characteristics, and human disturbance explain 23-45% of the spatial variation of forest soil seed banks on coral islands, with human disturbance reducing the correlations between plant communities and soil factors while increasing the correlations with landscape heterogeneity, road distance, and shrub and litter cover.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Luhui Kuang, Zhijian Mou, Yue Li, Xiaofei Lu, Yuanwen Kuang, Jun Wang, Faming Wang, Xi'an Cai, Wei Zhang, Shenglei Fu, Dafeng Hui, Hans Lambers, Jordi Sardans, Josep Penuelas, Hai Ren, Zhanfeng Liu
Summary: Canopies play a crucial role in redistributing nitrogen in forest ecosystems, and not considering their influence can lead to biased estimates of the ecological consequences of human-induced nitrogen deposition. This study investigated the effects of different approaches and levels of nitrogen addition on microbial residual carbon (MRC) accumulation in a tropical forest. Results showed that the response of MRC to nitrogen addition varied with soil depth, with contrasting effects in the topsoil and subsoil. Understory nitrogen addition had greater effects on MRC accumulation compared to canopy nitrogen addition. These findings highlight the important role of canopies in mitigating the impacts of nitrogen deposition on soil carbon cycling in tropical forests and the need for further research on depth-dependent response mechanisms.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Editorial Material
Environmental Sciences
Junjie Lin, Dafeng Hui, Amit Kumar, Zhiguo Yu, Yuhan Huang
FRONTIERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
(2023)
