Herbaceous plant species and their combinations positively affect soil microorganisms and processes and modify soil physicochemical properties in a mesocosm experiment

Stefanowicz, Anna M.; Kapusta, Paweł; Stanek, Małgorzata; Rożek, Katarzyna; Rola, Kaja; Zubek, Szymon

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2023.120826

Cited by 11 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 54 publications

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“…Increased water consumption by vegetation can lead to soil desiccation and thus restrict vegetation growth (Ciais et al, 2021). Meanwhile, soil factors such as moisture level, depth, and nutrient content have a greater impact on the composition of plant species (Stefanowicz et al, 2023). Determining how grazing and precipitation changes interact with vegetation traits and soil nutrient content in the background of climate change and increased human activity will therefore not only help predict future trends in semi‐arid grassland ecosystems (Zhu et al, 2023) but also have a significant scientific impact on restoring degraded grassland and promoting sustainable grassland development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of precipitation and grazing on recovery of plant vegetation in temperate grasslands

Lin,

Zhao,

Zhang

et al. 2023

Land Degrad Dev

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Grasslands support a rich diversity that plays a pivotal role in ecological balance, carbon sequestration, and climate regulation. Grassland ecosystems are facing a loss of biodiversity and a decline in soil function due to precipitation variations caused by climate change. However, variations in grassland species diversity are not clearly known, especially under the combined effects of precipitation and grazing. Based on a 5‐year split‐plot experiment with two grazing regimes (i.e., moderate grazing and grazing prohibition) along with three precipitation controls (ambient precipitation and ±50% precipitation) in Inner Mongolian grasslands, we researched the response of precipitation variability and grazing prohibition to vegetation diversity indices and investigated the response of vegetation community composition and biomass to these factors. Five years results showed that increasing precipitation resulted in a significant increase in the coverage of perennial forbs, annual and biennial plants, and Gramineae. Grazing prohibition and increased precipitation significantly increased biomass and species richness compared to all other treatment combinations. Interestingly, grazing exclusion significantly reduced the percentage of Amaryllidaceae, especially in the presence of altered precipitation. The vegetation community composition of a typical grassland was correlated with soil volumetric water content (VWC), bulk density (SBD) and pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), and total nitrogen (TN). VWC, SBD, and TN were found to be the most significant factors affecting vegetation diversity under grazing. Partial canonical ordination revealed that soil moisture, soil bulk density, and SOC had the most significant correlation with vegetation diversity under both grazing prohibition and increased precipitation treatment conditions. These results suggested that alterations in precipitation can change the species composition and ecosystem function of plant communities, leading to a close relationship between species diversity and soil properties. Our results underline the importance of species diversity for soil characteristics and environmental factors in a typical Eurasian steppe ecosystem.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%