Herbivores suppress soil microbes to influence carbon sequestration in the grazing ecosystem of the Trans-Himalaya

Bagchi, Sumanta; Roy, Shamik; Maitra, Alakananda; Sran, Rubanpreet S

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2017.01.033

Cited by 47 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Our study showed that the relative abundance of Bacteroidia , an obligate anaerobic gut microbe in animals (Eckburg, ; Winter & Bäumler, ), was higher in WG, likely due to accumulation of dung and urine by intensive grazing in WG (Barik & Murugan, ). Accumulation of dung and urine may also decrease the C/N of substrates, facilitating decomposition but reducing soil C accumulation (Bagchi, Roy, Maitra, & Sran, ; Fontaine et al, ). Moreover, additions of dung and urine may increase soil mineral N and in turn affect soil microbes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing practices affect the soil microbial community composition in a Tibetan alpine meadow

et al. 2018

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Grazing is the primary land‐use activity on the Tibetan Plateau and can affect soil microbes and their function through aboveground vegetation removal, animal trampling, and manure deposition. Two distinct grazing systems (i.e., winter grazing [WG] and annual grazing [AG]) dominate on the Tibetan Plateau, but their effects on soil microbes have rarely been assessed. Taking advantage of a 5‐year field experiment that controlled timing and density of grazers via fence exclosures, we examined impacts of different grazing practices on the biomass, diversity, and composition of the soil microbial community in a Tibetan alpine meadow. On the basis of high‐throughput sequencing, we found that grazing had no significant effects on bacterial and fungal α‐diversities but altered their community compositions. Although total soil carbon (TC), total soil nitrogen (TN), and carbon/nitrogen (C/N) were related to both bacterial and fungal community compositions, plant shoot biomass only correlated with bacteria, and soil pH and moisture significantly influenced fungi under grazing. Also, grazing altered plant community composition but did not lead to corresponding changes in bacterial or fungal community composition. Moreover, grazing practices affected the relative abundance of specific bacterial and fungal taxa, reducing Actinobacteria but increasing Basidiomycete fungi in WG. Soil TC and TN were higher, and the soil microbial community was more stable in AG than WG, likely due to more stable litter inputs in AG. Together, these results showed that AG was less disruptive to soil microbes, suggesting that AG may provide a viable option for sustainable utilization and conservation of these fragile alpine systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing practices affect the soil microbial community composition in a Tibetan alpine meadow

et al. 2018

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“…Because grazing by livestock is the primary human land use in the Trans‐Himalaya, management interventions can include improved grazing policies (Akiyama & Kawamura, ; Briske, ; Briske et al, ; Joyce & Marshall, Papanastasis, ), because traditional instruments are rapidly deteriorating under pressure from external markets (Namgail et al, ; Singh, Bhatnagar, Lecomte, Fox, & Yoccoz, ). Previous experimental studies in the Trans‐Himalaya have determined how grazing mediates plant–soil feedbacks, especially in Spiti region (Bagchi & Ritchie, ; Bagchi, Roy, Maitra, & Sran, ), which emerged as a degradation hotspot. These feedbacks can potentially be incorporated into policy decisions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These feedbacks can potentially be incorporated into policy decisions. Likewise, experimental climate manipulations have also revealed that negative impacts of warming can be ameliorated through moderate intensity grazing (Klein et al, ), because it alters nutrient cycling feedback in soil (Bagchi, Roy, et al, ) and aids compensatory vegetation regrowth. The underlying mechanisms revealed by the experimental studies can help interpret the long‐term vegetation trends of greening/browning, and together they offer insights for grazing management.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, experimental climate manipulations have also revealed that negative impacts of warming can be ameliorated through moderate intensity grazing (Klein et al, 2007), because it alters nutrient cycling feedback in soil (Bagchi, Roy, et al, 2017) First, it is important to account for intraannual seasonality of greening/browning as composite metrics of annual sum, mean, or maximum NDVI can mask key details, and sometimes be misleading (Figures 3 and 4). Second, it is important to evaluate agreement between different spatial scales, in order to inform management interventions that can attempt to arrest/reverse degradation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The underlying mechanisms that could explain browning instead of greening may include altered snowmelt patterns under warmer climate (Musselman, Clark, Liu, Ikeda, & Rasmussen, 2017), declining water availability in soil (Schlaepfer et al, 2017), and accelerated erosion of topsoil with loss of soil organic matter and reduction in soil fertility (Wang et al, 2017). If these indirect mechanisms are at play (Turnbull et al, 2008), then their effects should be incorporated into land use policy, as they can be influenced by grazing mediated feedbacks at the plant-soil interface (Bagchi & Ritchie, 2010;Bagchi, Roy, et al, 2017;Klein et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial patterns of long‐term vegetation greening and browning are consistent across multiple scales: Implications for monitoring land degradation

Murthy

Bagchi

2018

Land Degrad Dev

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Understanding spatial–temporal patterns of terrestrial vegetation response to climate change (long‐term greening/browning) is important for developing strategies to mitigate degradation. Semiarid rangelands are especially susceptible to degradation, which challenges wildlife conservation and human livelihoods that depend on livestock production. In the cold‐arid Trans‐Himalayan ecosystem (northern India), temperature is increasing, and it is also becoming progressively wetter. Yet, counter‐intuitively, there are widespread concerns over degradation. We evaluated whether greening/browning patterns in long‐term satellite‐derived vegetation indices (normalized difference vegetation index [NDVI]) are consistent across different spatial and temporal scales using 6 datasets: MODIS (250 m, 500 m, 1 km, and 5.5 km), SPOT 1 km, and GIMMS 8 km. Results indicate browning in the spring and greening in late summer. Location of hotspots of degradation (browning) was broadly consistent across spatial scales (10−2–102 km2) and were found in regions with warmer temperature and at higher elevations. Broadly, the spatial/temporal pattern of browning does not coincide strongly with location and timing of human land use via livestock grazing. This geographical and seasonal context indicates that vegetation response may be more strongly related to climate than to human land use (overgrazing). Importantly, the dynamic nature of greening/browning, across space and time, is not captured by composite annual metrics (sum‐NDVI, max‐NDVI, and mean‐NDVI). This reiterates the importance of both intraannual and interannual assessments. Location of hotspots indicates that degradation occurs in a spatially contiguous manner, but these are not stationary and instead shift with seasons. Overall, the results show that evaluating the consistency of greening/browning trends across different spatial/temporal scales is critical for understanding and managing vegetation degradation.

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Herbivores stimulate respiration from labile and recalcitrant soil carbon pools in grasslands of Yellowstone National Park

Chen

Frank

2020

Land Degrad Dev

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Quantifying the effects of grazing on soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition is of crucial importance for understanding soil C dynamics. However, less attention has been paid to the pool-specific SOC decomposition and the underlying factors associated with each C pool, representing critical knowledge gaps on soil C dynamics. In this study, we applied a state-of-the-art Bayesian data assimilation technique to re-analyze previous soil incubation data to examine how herbivores influenced the fraction and cumulative respiration of labile and recalcitrant soil C pools from seven edaphically diverse sites in Yellowstone National Park, whereas those variables were not explored in the earlier study. Our results showed that grazing significantly increased cumulative respiration from both labile and recalcitrant C pools. Greater cumulative respiration from the labile C pool was related to grazers increasing labile C pool fractions, while higher cumulative respiration from the recalcitrant C pool was associated with grazers accelerating the decomposition rate of the recalcitrant C pool. Cumulative respiration from both labile and recalcitrant C pools was positively correlated with shoot biomass, soil gravimetric moisture, and soil C and nitrogen content. Our results underscore how knowledge of pool-specific SOC decomposition can provide a better mechanistic understanding of soil C dynamics along topo-edaphic gradients in grazed grassland.

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Herbivores suppress soil microbes to influence carbon sequestration in the grazing ecosystem of the Trans-Himalaya

Cited by 47 publications

References 54 publications

Grazing practices affect the soil microbial community composition in a Tibetan alpine meadow

Grazing practices affect the soil microbial community composition in a Tibetan alpine meadow

Spatial patterns of long‐term vegetation greening and browning are consistent across multiple scales: Implications for monitoring land degradation

Herbivores stimulate respiration from labile and recalcitrant soil carbon pools in grasslands of Yellowstone National Park

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