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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (10): 206-216.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2021389

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The relationships between desert shrubs and soil fauna and their responses to precipitation changes in arid regions: A review

Zhi-xia GUO1,2,3(), Ren-tao LIU2,3(), Wen-zhi ZHAO3,4   

  1. 1.School of Agriculture,Ningxia University,Yinchuan 750021,China
    2.School of Ecology and Environments,Ningxia University,Yinchuan 750021,China
    3.Breeding Base for State Key Laboratory of Land Degradation and Ecological Restoration in Northwestern China,Ningxia University,Yinchuan 750021,China
    4.Northwest Institute of Ecological Environment and Resources,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Lanzhou 730000,China
  • Received:2021-10-28 Revised:2022-01-27 Online:2022-10-20 Published:2022-09-14
  • Contact: Ren-tao LIU

Abstract:

In a desert ecosystem, shrub regeneration was facilitated as part of a vegetation restoration program. Shrub regeneration was found to be one of the most efficient, economical, lasting and stable measures for desertification control in these regions. The soil fauna is an important component of soil biota in desert ecosystems, and play important roles in material recycling, energy flow and information transfer. Shrub establishment had beneficial effects on soil faunal distribution and shrubs also acted as “fertilizer islands” in the restoration of degraded ecosystems. Our study focused on the relationships between soil faunal distributions and shrub microhabitats. Firstly, we catalogued the distribution of desert shrubs and their effects on the distribution of soil faunal communities. Secondly, we probed into the underlying mechanisms of the effects of shrubs on soil faunal distribution and how these processes responded to precipitation changes in these regions. From these data we extrapolated responses under future global climate change and proposed some key topics for future study. They are: 1) The feedback of soil faunal distribution in particular shrub microhabitats on aboveground plant growth and development and related ecophysiological attributes; 2) Identification of new methods to examine the relationships between soil fauna and desert shrubs under precipitation changes; 3) The ecosystem service benefits of particular soil faunal diversity distribution patterns between shrub microhabitats in arid regions.

Key words: desert shrub, biodiversity conservation, soil fauna, precipitation changes