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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (6): 45-57.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2022356

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Effects of co-sowing of Artemisia wellbyi and perennial grasses on the characteristics of vegetation and soil fungal communities in desertified grasslands in Tibet

Huan LIU1(), Kai DONG1, Zeng-wangdui REN2, Jing-long WANG2, Yun-fei LIU2, Gui-qin ZHAO1   

  1. 1.Pratacultural College,Gansu Agricultural University,Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecosystem,Ministry of Education,Lanzhou 730070,China
    2.Institute of Pratacultural Science,Tibet Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Sciences,Lhasa 850000,China
  • Received:2022-09-01 Revised:2022-10-19 Online:2023-06-20 Published:2023-04-21
  • Contact: Huan LIU

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to determine the optimal proportion of plant species when using mixed-sowing for restoration of desertified grasslands on the Tibetan plateau and for improving the ecological effects of vegetation and soil during restoration. Artificial restoration experimental plots were established in the sandy grasslands of Tibet for this study. Seeds of the native Tibetan species Artemisia wellbyi and the perennial grass species Elymus nutans and Agropyron trachycaulhum were mixed at different proportions [AG1 (4∶1∶2), AG2 (4∶2∶1) and AG3 (5∶1∶1)] and sown at the experimental plots. The controls were unrestored sandy bare ground as the desertified control (CK) and natural grassland (NG) under in situ conditions. Three years after establishing these plots, the vegetation biomass and soil physical and chemical indexes were determined, and ITS sequencing technology and FUNGuild function prediction methods were used to characterize the community structure and functions of soil fungi. The main findings can be summarized as follows: 1) Compared with the control (unrestored sandy land), the restoration treatments increased the above-ground plant biomass (AGB) and below-ground biomass (BGB) by more than three times, and significantly increased soil water content (WC), and the contents of organic matter (OM), alkali-hydrolyzale nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), and available potassium (AK) in soil (P<0.05). 2) The soil fungal community structure and diversity varied among the three replanting treatments. The AG3 treatment had the highest soil fungal diversity and its fungal community structure was most similar to that of natural grassland. 3) There were significant differences in the abundance of Basidiomycota and Mortierellomycota in soil between the restoration treatments and natural grassland (P<0.05). The results of a redundancy analysis showed that BGB, AN, AP and pH were the main environmental factors affecting the horizontal community structure of the soil fungal phyla. The relative abundance of Basidiomycota was positively correlated with BGB and pH, and the relative abundance of Mortierellomycota was positively correlated with BGB, AN, and AP. 4) Based on FUNGuild functional predictions, three trophic functional groups (saprophytic, pathogenic, and symbiotic fungi) and five cross-trophic functional groups were detected in all soil samples. Pathogenic, saprophytic, pathogenic-saprophytic, pathogenic-saprophytic, and symbiotic trophic types were dominant. These results show that replanting with A. wellbyi and the perennial grasses E. nutans and A. trachycaulhum can increase plant biomass and restore desertified soil. Under these conditions, the restoration treatment with the best effect on soil nutrients and fungal abundance was sowing with a 5∶1∶1 mixture of A. wellbyi, E. nutans, and A. trachycaulhum seeds.

Key words: ecological restoration, soil nutrients, soil fungal communities, high-throughput sequencing