Article
Soil Science
Jennifer Holguin, Scott L. Collins, Jennie R. McLaren
Summary: This study investigates the impacts of extreme drought and delayed monsoon on belowground productivity and biogeochemistry in two adjacent semi-arid grasslands. The results show that extreme drought reduces belowground net primary productivity in one grassland but not in the other, while delayed monsoon reduces belowground productivity in both grasslands. However, extreme drought and delayed monsoon treatments have little effect on soil microbial biomass and soil carbon stocks.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Congwen Wang, Xu Pan, Wanying Yu, Xuehua Ye, Enkhmaa Erdenebileg, Chengjie Wang, Linna Ma, Renzhong Wang, Zhenying Huang, Tuvshintogtokh Indree, Guofang Liu
Summary: Soil microbes play important roles in regulating the functions and services of terrestrial ecosystems under climate change and human disturbance. Soil microbial networks are influenced by complex interactions and environmental factors such as aridity and soil heterogeneity. This study found that aridity was the main driver of soil microbial network structure and decreased complexity and stability. Soil heterogeneity, on the other hand, increased microbial network complexity and stability by promoting diverse host plants and mediating soil resource distribution. Overall, this research highlights the importance of climate and soil variables, as well as environmental heterogeneity, in regulating soil microbial networks.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Jinlong Wang, Chunjuan Wang, Xuefeng Wu, Jinwei Zhang, Guiyun Zhao, Yu Hou, Haiming Sun
Summary: This study investigated the impact of changes in precipitation volume and dry intervals on bacterial co-occurrence networks in grassland ecosystems. The results showed that alterations in precipitation and dry intervals did not significantly affect bacterial diversity, but had a significant effect on the co-occurrence network structure. Prolonged dry intervals were found to reduce the robustness of bacterial networks, and the complexity and stability of the network were primarily influenced by soil water content, phosphorus, and aboveground biomass.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Shuya Hu, Changhui Wang, Anita C. Risch, Yuan Liu, Yang Li, Lei Li, Xiaohui Xu, Nianpeng He, Xingguo Han, Jianhui Huang
Summary: Soil net nitrogen mineralization is a crucial biogeochemical process that affects plant available nitrogen and net primary productivity in terrestrial ecosystems. This study investigated the spatial variations and controlling factors of soil net nitrogen mineralization in arid and semi-arid grasslands, and found that it varies among different grassland types and locations, influenced by climatic and soil factors.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Mei Zhang, Ruixi Zhang, Riquan Song, Xilong An, Guixin Chu, Hongtao Jia
Summary: This study investigated the effects of aridity on the diversity and assembly mechanism of the soil pqqC community using high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that increased aridity altered the composition and structure of the pqqC community, promoted interspecific competition, and increased the relative contribution of stochastic processes.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
G. W. Price, Morgan G. I. Langille, Svetlana N. Yurgel
Summary: The study found that annual applications of alkaline stabilized biosolid (ATB) had a greater impact on bacterial community structure compared to fungi and eukaryotes. Higher rates of annual ATB applications resulted in lower bacterial alpha-diversity, as well as fungal and eukaryotic Shannon diversity, while single or lower rates of ATB annually showed increased alpha-diversity relative to the control.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Xueqin Li, Yan Yan, Xuyang Lu, Lijiao Fu, Yanling Liu
Summary: Changes in precipitation do not significantly affect the structure of soil microbial communities, but can lead to separation of soil microbial communities in different treatments. The microbial interaction network is more closely connected in the water-increasing treatment group, while there is a stronger correlation between species in the water-reducing treatment group.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Mengying Zhao, Haihua Shen, Yankun Zhu, Aijun Xing, Jie Kang, Lingli Liu, Jingyun Fang
Summary: Precipitation changes have significant impacts on the nitrogen (N) cycle in water-limited grasslands. This study investigated the effects of altered precipitation on N-cycling gene abundance and diversity in different soil depths. The results showed that increased precipitation enhanced the abundance of key N-cycling genes but decreased the diversity of ammonium assimilation genes, suggesting accelerated N turnover. Furthermore, the study found that future increases in precipitation could accelerate soil N turnover in arid and semi-arid lands.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Congwen Wang, Wanying Yu, Linna Ma, Xuehua Ye, Enkhmaa Erdenebileg, Renzhong Wang, Zhenying Huang, Tuvshintogtokh Indree, Guofang Liu
Summary: Ecosystem functioning is crucial for human welfare, and grassland ecosystems provide multiple ecosystem services known as ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF). This study investigated the effects of biotic and abiotic factors on EMF in grasslands. Biotic factors, such as plant species diversity and soil microbial diversity, had interactive effects on EMF, while abiotic factors, such as soil texture, had stronger effects on EMF. Understanding these factors is essential for managing and maintaining grassland EMF.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Soil Science
Marta Goberna, Miguel Verdu
Summary: Soil ecology is experiencing rapid growth in the use of co-occurrence network analysis. This analysis method is useful for extracting simple patterns from complex datasets and has applications in detecting factors that determine community structure, identifying keystone taxa, and inferring mechanisms of community assembly. However, there is a misuse of networks as mere graphic tools without hypothesis testing. This study reviews the main applications of co-occurrence network analysis in soil ecology over the past decade and provides recommendation guidelines to improve its use.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2022)
Article
Soil Science
Bin-Bin Li, Pan-Pan Li, Wan-Tao Zhang, Jing-Yi Ji, Guo-Bin Liu, Ming-Xiang Xu
Summary: The study reveals that planted forests and shrubs in the Chinese Loess Plateau have negative impacts on deep soil moisture within 1000 cm depth, showing a significant and continuous decrease in soil moisture in the first 20 years, with certain tree species recommended to maintain better soil moisture levels. Additionally, the limiting effects of precipitation on deep soil moisture under planted forests and shrubs may begin to appear when the mean annual precipitation is less than 480 mm.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tianyu Zhan, Haotian Zhao, Jiaxi Zhang, Chunyan Cheng, Zhenchao Zhang
Summary: Livestock grazing intensity has varying impacts on carbon sequestration in grasslands depending on precipitation levels. In arid grasslands, light, moderate, and heavy grazing significantly reduce soil organic carbon stocks by 3.43 %, 13.68 %, and 16.77 % respectively (P < 0.05). However, in humid grasslands, light and moderate grazing do not affect soil organic carbon stocks (P > 0.05). The changes in soil organic carbon stocks are closely associated with changes in soil water content under different grazing intensities (P < 0.05). Precipitation is also positively correlated with changes in above-and belowground biomasses, soil microbial biomass carbon, and soil organic carbon stocks under moderate grazing intensity (P < 0.05). These findings have implications for predicting China's grassland carbon budget and adopting sustainable management for carbon neutrality.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Hannah M. Goemann, Justin D. Gay, Rebecca C. Mueller, E. N. J. Brookshire, Perry Miller, Benjamin Poulter, Brent M. Peyton
Summary: This study investigates the simultaneous use of perennial cropping systems and microbial biofertilizer supplements as emerging strategies to increase agricultural sustainability. Results show that supplementing synthetic fertilization with a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterial biofertilizer during the establishment phase of a perennial switchgrass stand in SW Montana, USA, can maintain aboveground crop productivity and increase late-season nitrogen availability in the soil. High-throughput sequencing of microbial communities revealed fine-scale responses and sensitivities to fertilization among different bacterial/archaeal and fungal groups. Monitoring soil microbiome is crucial to understand the impacts of alternative agricultural practices on soil health.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY BIOENERGY
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yi Zhu, Lanhui Zhang, Feng Li, Jiaxin Xu, Chansheng He
Summary: Soil moisture (SM) is crucial in arid and semi-arid areas for land-atmosphere interactions, hydrological processes, and ecosystem sustainability. Data fusion methods, such as Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) and Back-Propagation Artificial Neural Network (BPANN), were compared in this study to obtain large-scale SM data. Results show that the fused data by BPANN (FD-BPANN) and EnKF (FD-EnKF) had improved performance compared to the original data sets at both sites, with FD-BPANN performing better. However, FD-BPANN showed the worst performance in terms of percentile range, with overestimations in the low SM range.
Article
Soil Science
Zhiyuan Zhao, Yanting Ma, Ai Zhang, Yumeng Chen, Zhaoxia Zheng, Wei Zheng, Bingnian Zhai
Summary: This study investigated the effects of different fertilization regimes on soil bacterial communities in apple orchards after 12 years. The results showed that long-term organic fertilizer substitution made the bacterial community more sensitive to environmental changes and stimulated the soil carbon and nitrogen cycles.
APPLIED SOIL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Jean Damascene Harindintwali, Leilei Xiang, Fang Wang, Scott X. Chang, Zhiliang Zhao, Zhi Mei, Zhongjun Jia, Xin Jiang, Yong-guan Zhu, James M. Tiedje
Summary: The extensive use of organic chemicals has led to the distribution of hydrocarbon contaminants in many ecosystems worldwide. Bacteria and archaea play a dominant role in transforming these contaminants into methane through a syntrophic process. The resulting methane is then oxidized by anaerobic bacteria and archaea in the presence of electron acceptors, contributing to the reduction of methane emissions and climate change mitigation. However, the specific pathways and syntrophic partners involved in this process are still poorly understood.
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Xiangde Yang, Sheng Tang, Kang Ni, Yuanzhi Shi, Xiaoyun Yi, Qingxu Ma, Yanjiang Cai, Lifeng Ma, Jianyun Ruan
Summary: This study investigated the response of soil denitrification to nitrogen addition in an acidic tea plantation system. The results showed that nitrogen application significantly increased soil denitrification potential and the abundance of denitrifying genes. However, diversity of denitrifying communities decreased with increasing nitrogen rates. Soil and pruned litter properties contributed to the variation in denitrifying communities. Factors such as dissolved organic carbon, soil pH, and abundance of specific genes influenced denitrification potential.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(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
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Yu Wang, Yuanyuan Huang, Lian Song, Jiahui Yuan, Wei Li, Yongguan Zhu, Scott X. Chang, Yiqi Luo, Philippe Ciais, Josep Penuelas, Julie Wolf, Barbara J. Cade-Menun, Shuijin Hu, Lei Wang, Dengjun Wang, Zengwei Yuan, Yujun Wang, Jishuang Zhang, Ye Tao, Shenqiang Wang, Gang Liu, Xiaoyuan Yan, Chunwu Zhu
Summary: Long-term free air carbon dioxide enrichment experiments on rice plants show that plant-available phosphorus declines in paddy soils as atmospheric CO2 increases. The decline in phosphorus concentration is attributed to the production of soil organic phosphorus that is not readily available to plants, as well as increased loss through crop harvest. These findings suggest that future CO2 scenarios may lead to reduced rice yields, particularly in low-income countries, unless additional phosphorus fertilizers are applied.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ronggui Tang, Minshen Ying, Yongming Luo, Ali El-Naggar, Kumuduni Niroshika Palansooriya, Tao Sun, Yutao Cao, Zhihan Diao, Yuxin Zhang, Yichen Lian, Keyi Chen, Yan Yan, Xinghang Lu, Yanjiang Cai, Scott X. Chang
Summary: This study investigated the metabolic and gut microbial responses of earthworms to environmentally relevant concentrations of polystyrene microplastics. The results showed that the microplastics did not significantly affect the weight, survival rate, or biodiversity of the gut microbiota, but did decrease the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes at the phylum level. Furthermore, the microplastics disturbed the osmoregulatory metabolism of the earthworms. This study provides important insights into the molecular toxicity of polystyrene microplastics on soil fauna.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2023)
Article
Soil Science
Baogang Zhang, Shuo Jiao, Gaodi Zhu, Huai Chen, Yanjiang Cai, Scott X. Chang
Summary: Neighboring plant community attributes, especially the identity of neighboring plant species, have a significant impact on the rhizobiome communities of focal plants. The attributes of aboveground plant communities have a stronger influence on rhizobiome richness and composition than belowground attributes.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xinli Chen, Anthony R. Taylor, Peter B. Reich, Masumi Hisano, Han Y. H. Chen, Scott X. Chang
Summary: Increasing tree diversity can enhance soil carbon and nitrogen storage, thus mitigating climate change and sustaining soil fertility.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yushuang Kong, Haikuo Zhang, Linlin Tian, Junji Yuan, Youchao Chen, Yan Li, Jian Chen, Scott X. Chang, Yunying Fang, Ehsan Tavakkoli, Yanjiang Cai
Summary: Wetland plants play a significant role in wetland soil denitrification, but the effects of different plant communities are still unclear. This study found that wetland plants indirectly regulate soil denitrification by altering water content, nitrate concentration, and functional gene abundances. Co-planting Paspalum thunbergia and Phragmites karka can effectively improve nitrogen removal efficiency and mitigate eutrophication in adjacent aquatic ecosystems.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Yuye Shen, Yunying Fang, Huai Chen, Zilong Ma, Chengpeng Huang, Xiaofen Wu, Scott X. Chang, Ehsan Tavakkoli, Yanjiang Cai
Summary: Grazing behaviors, including trampling, defoliation, and excretion, have different effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in alpine grassland ecosystems. Light trampling increases SOC stock in the 0-10 cm soil layer, while heavy defoliation increases SOC stock in the 20-30 cm depth. However, excretion significantly decreases SOC stock due to changes in soil bulk density, SOC concentration, and microbial biomass C. Managing livestock grazing behavior is crucial for maintaining SOC stock in alpine grasslands.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Wael I. Mortada, Ali El-Naggar, Ahmed Mosa, Kumuduni Niroshika Palansooriya, Balal Yousaf, Ronggui Tang, Shengsen Wang, Yanjiang Cai, Scott X. Chang
Summary: This paper synthesizes information on different dimensions of Cr ecotoxicological hazards in the soil and water and their subsequent effects on human health. Human exposure to Cr(VI) causes both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health effects via complicated reactions that include oxidative stress, chromosomal and DNA damage, and mutagenesis. Research on the biogeochemical behaviour of Cr and its toxicological hazards on human and other biological routes is urgently needed.
Article
Soil Science
Qiumei Teng, Xiaoni Lu, Qianqian Zhang, Linlin Cai, Muhammad Fahad Sardar, Yongfu Li, Touqeer Abbas, Yong Li, Scott X. Chang, Yongchun Li
Summary: Plant invasion can influence soil microbial function and nitrogen supply by changing the quality and quantity of litter input. However, the mechanism by which litter quality regulates soil nitrogen mineralization through microbial function in plant invasion remains unclear.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yanyan Jiang, Xiangde Yang, Kang Ni, Lifeng Ma, Yuanzhi Shi, Yu Wang, Yanjiang Cai, Qingxu Ma, Jianyun Ruan
Summary: Nitrogen (N) application had negative effects on soil available phosphorus (P) while increasing the activity of phosphatases in a tea plantation system. The abundance of ppa gene increased but phoD gene decreased with N application levels. Soil pH was found to be a key factor influencing microbial communities related to ppa and phoD genes. Long-term N application indirectly reduced soil P availability by altering the abundances of phoD-harboring microbial communities. Periodic phosphorus supplementation is recommended in tea plantations, particularly under high N application levels.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Correction
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xinli Chen, Anthony R. Taylor, Peter B. Reich, Masumi Hisano, Han Y. H. Chen, Scott X. Chang
Article
Soil Science
Lei Sun, Yong S. Feng, Miles F. Dyck, Dick Puurveen, Guangwei Wu, Scott X. Chang
Summary: Reversing land management from no-tillage to conventional tillage can significantly affect soil greenhouse gas emissions, increase total CO2 fluxes, and have different impacts on area- and yield-scaled GHG fluxes. Nitrogen fertilization did not affect yield-scaled GHG fluxes, but tillage reversal decreased them due to increased crop yield. Periodic tillage can increase yield and reduce yield-scaled GHG emissions.
BIOLOGY AND FERTILITY OF SOILS
(2023)
Article
Soil Science
C. Beraud, F. Piola, J. Gervaix, G. Meiffren, C. Creuze des Chatelliers, A. Delort, C. Boisselet, S. Poussineau, E. Lacroix, A. A. M. Cantarel
Summary: This study investigated the soil factors influencing the development of biological denitrification inhibition (BDI) and found that initial soil moisture, ammonium concentration, and the initial abundance of certain microbial genes play significant roles in BDI development. Additionally, the research highlighted the relevance of biotic factors in explaining BDI and proposed the use of procyanidin concentration from plant belowground system as a new proxy for measuring BDI intensity.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2024)
Article
Soil Science
Yizhu Qiao, Tingting Wang, Qiwei Huang, Hanyue Guo, He Zhang, Qicheng Xu, Qirong Shen, Ning Ling
Summary: Soil microbial community coalescence, the mixing and interaction of microbial communities, has been found to enhance the stability and complexity of rhizobacterial networks, leading to improved plant health and biomass. This study investigated the effects of different degrees of bacterial community coalescence on plant disease resistance by mixing soils from healthy and diseased habitats for watermelon planting. The results showed that mixing in more healthy soil reduced the plant disease index and increased biomass by improving the stability and complexity of the rhizobacterial network. Core taxa Nitrospirillum and Singulisphaera were enriched in the rhizosphere from healthy soils and played important roles in disease suppression and regulating the positive cohesion and modularity of the networks. Overall, these findings provide insights into the potential mechanism of microbial community coalescence for improving plant microbial community function and suggest new tools for enhancing plant fitness via soil microbiota mixing.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2024)
Article
Soil Science
Mengqiu He, Shending Chen, Lei Meng, Xiaoqian Dan, Wenjie Wang, Qinying Zhu, Zucong Cai, Jinbo Zhang, Pierfrancesco Nardi, Christoph Mueller
Summary: Maize genotypes directly affect gene expression and nitrogen uptake capacity. The feedback between maize genotypes and soil nitrogen transformations, as well as their regulations on nitrogen uptake capacity, have been studied. The findings suggest that maize genotypes play a central role in regulating these feedbacks, which are important for maize breeding and enhancing maize production.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2024)
Article
Soil Science
Ke Shi, Jiahui Liao, Xiaoming Zou, Han Y. H. Chen, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Zhengming Yan, Tingting Ren, Honghua Ruan
Summary: Through rewilding, microbial extracellular and cellular residues can continuously accumulate in soils and significantly contribute to soil organic carbon sequestration. Extracellular residues are mainly driven by fine root biomass, while cellular residues are mainly driven by soil nitrogen and organic carbon content.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2024)
Article
Soil Science
Sensen Chen, Ying Teng, Yongming Luo, Eiko Kuramae, Wenjie Ren
Summary: This study comprehensively assesses the effects of NMs on the soil microbiome through a global meta-analysis. The results reveal significant negative impacts of NMs on soil microbial diversity, biomass, activity, and function. Metal NMs, especially Ag NMs, have the most pronounced negative effects on various soil microbial community metrics.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2024)
Article
Soil Science
Shareen K. D. Sanders, Gerard Martinez-De Leon, Ludovico Formenti, Madhav P. Thakur
Summary: Collembolans, the diverse group of soil invertebrates, are affected by anthropogenic climate warming, which alters their diversity and density. In addition to abiotic stressors, changes in food availability, specifically the abundance of saprotrophic and mycorrhizal fungi, influence Collembola responses to climate warming. Collembolans prefer saprotrophic fungi but rely on mycorrhizal fungi when food sources are scarce. Understanding the mechanisms behind these dietary shifts in warm-dry and warm-wet soil conditions is crucial for predicting the impact of climate change on Collembola-fungal interactions.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2024)
Article
Soil Science
Wimonsiri Pingthaisong, Sergey Blagodatsky, Patma Vityakon, Georg Cadisch
Summary: A study found that mixing high-C/N ratio rice straw with low-C/N ratio groundnut stover can improve the chemical composition of the input, stimulate microbial growth, decrease the loss of residue-derived carbon in the soil, and reduce native soil carbon and nitrogen consumption.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2024)
Article
Soil Science
Jiachen Wang, Jie Zhao, Rong Yang, Xin Liu, Xuyuan Zhang, Wei Zhang, Xiaoyong Chen, Wende Yan, Kelin Wang
Summary: Nitrogen is vital for ecosystem productivity, restoration, and succession processes. This study found that legume intercropping was more effective than chemical nitrogen fertilizers in promoting the complexity and stability of the soil micro-food web, as it increased microbial and nematode communities and enhanced energy flow patterns.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2024)
