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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (2): 46-58.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2020105

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Change over time in soil microbial diversity of artificial grassland in the Yellow River source zone

Hua-fang SUN1(), Xi-lai LI1,2(), Li-qun JIN1, Cheng-yi LI1, Jing ZHANG1,2   

  1. 1.College of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry,Qinghai University,Xining 810016,China
    2.Qinghai -Guangdong Joint Laboratory of Natural Resources Monitoring and Evaluation,Xining 810016,China
  • Received:2020-03-08 Revised:2020-05-07 Online:2021-02-20 Published:2021-01-19
  • Contact: Xi-lai LI

Abstract:

This research investigated the characteristics of the soil surface (0-5 cm) microbial community and biological soil crusts (BSCs) in artificial alpine grasslands with a time series of establishment dates (1, 4, 11, 14 and 18 years established) in Maqin County, Qinghai Province. The associated vegetation characteristics were also investigated. It was found that the diversity of surface soil microorganisms increased gradually with the years established, and the diversity indexes (except Simpson’s index) of prokaryotic microorganisms were significantly greater than those of eukaryotic species (P<0.05). The dominant prokaryotic microorganisms of artificial grassland across the establishment time series were from the phylumProteobacteriaand the genus Gemmatimonas, while the dominant eukaryotic microorganisms were of the phylum Ascomycota and the genus Knufia. The relative abundances of these dominant species differed significantly with years of establishment years. Analysis of the relationship between vegetation characteristics and soil microbes revealed that the number of prokaryotic microbe OTUs (more than 97% of sequences were classified into an operational taxon) was closely related to the vegetation diversity indexes (P<0.01), and the number of the eukaryotic microorganism OTUs were significantly correlated with vegetation cover and BSCs cover (P<0.01). The relative abundance of dominant microbial species correlated well with vegetation diversity, especially of eukaryotic microorganisms (P<0.05). In summary, the data show conclusively that the restoration of artificial grassland vegetation is conducive to the promotion of microbial recovery. However, more time is needed for recovery and stabilization of the soil microbial community than for recovery of the aboveground vegetation.

Key words: soil microorganism, artificial grassland, biological soil crusts, vegetation characteristics, the Yellow River source zone