Abstract
ABSTRACT Soil microbial biodiversity plays a fundamental role in regulating dryland ecosystem multifunctionality, being influenced by various environmental factors, particularly plant cover and soil properties. However, the complex interactions among soil microbial communities, plant communities, and soil physicochemical properties in desert steppe ecosystems remain inadequately understood. To address this knowledge gap, we examined the relationships between aboveground plant communities and soil environmental parameters (including nitrate nitrogen, pH, cation exchange capacity, and effective phosphorus) and their influence on the diversity and community structure of soil bacteria, archaea, and fungi across 37 desert steppe sites in Bayannur, Inner Mongolia, a typical northern China's dryland region. Our results showed that bacterial diversity exhibited significant variation among plant communities, with notably higher diversity in Stipa breviflora ‐dominated soils compared to Peganum harmala ‐dominated soils. The microbial communities were characterized by dominant phyla: Acidobacteriota (21.5%) in bacteria, Crenarchaeota (97.3%) in archaea, and Ascomycota (82.1%) in fungi. Bacterial diversity was significantly correlated with soil pH, available potassium, and carbonate content, while archaeal diversity showed strong correlations with ammonium nitrogen, available phosphorus, carbonate content, and cation exchange capacity. Fungal diversity, however, exhibited significant correlation only with available phosphorus. Environmental factors explained varying degrees of community structure variations, with the highest explanatory power for archaea (66.1%), followed by bacteria (49.0%) and fungi (32.8%). Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that plant communities influenced bacterial communities primarily through modifications in soil pH and ion contents. These findings underscore the critical role of plant communities and soil properties in shaping soil microbial diversity patterns. Given the essential function of biodiversity in ecosystem processes, our findings propose that soil bacterial diversity that was sensitive to vegetation shifts and closely linked to soil nutrient dynamics serves as a valuable bioindicator for monitoring and assessing degradation in desert steppe ecosystems.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 12
Claim · model-written summary
Bacterial diversity differed significantly among plant communities, being higher in Stipa breviflora-dominated soils than in Peganum harmala-dominated soils.
- Taxon
- Stipa brevifloraStipa breviflorae1
- Outcome
- bacterial diversitye1
- Direction
- highere1
- Comparator
- Peganum harmalae1
Verbatim
e1“bacterial diversity exhibited significant variation among plant communities, with notably higher diversity in Stipa breviflora ‐dominated soils compared to Peganum harmala ‐dominated soils”
Claim · model-written summary
Acidobacteriota was the dominant bacterial phylum (21.5%).
Verbatim
e1“dominant phyla: Acidobacteriota (21.5%) in bacteria”
Claim · model-written summary
Crenarchaeota was the dominant archaeal phylum (97.3%).
Verbatim
e1“Crenarchaeota (97.3%) in archaea”
Claim · model-written summary
Ascomycota was the dominant fungal phylum (82.1%).
Verbatim
e1“Ascomycota (82.1%) in fungi”
Claim · model-written summary
Bacterial diversity was significantly correlated with soil pH, available potassium and carbonate content.
Not reportedTaxonDirection
Verbatim
e1“Bacterial diversity was significantly correlated with soil pH, available potassium, and carbonate content”
Claim · model-written summary
Archaeal diversity correlated strongly with ammonium nitrogen, available phosphorus, carbonate content and cation exchange capacity.
- Compound
- ammonium nitrogen, available phosphorus, carbonate content, and cation exchange capacitye1
- Outcome
- archaeal diversitye1
Not reportedTaxonDirection
Verbatim
e1“archaeal diversity showed strong correlations with ammonium nitrogen, available phosphorus, carbonate content, and cation exchange capacity”
Claim · model-written summary
Fungal diversity correlated significantly only with available phosphorus.
Not reportedTaxonDirection
Verbatim
e1“Fungal diversity, however, exhibited significant correlation only with available phosphorus”
Claim · model-written summary
Environmental factors explained 66.1% of archaea community structure variation.
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e1“Environmental factors explained varying degrees of community structure variations, with the highest explanatory power for archaea (66.1%), followed by bacteria (49.0%) and fungi (32.8%)”
Claim · model-written summary
Environmental factors explained 49.0% of bacteria community structure variation.
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e1“Environmental factors explained varying degrees of community structure variations, with the highest explanatory power for archaea (66.1%), followed by bacteria (49.0%) and fungi (32.8%)”
Claim · model-written summary
Environmental factors explained 32.8% of fungi community structure variation.
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e1“Environmental factors explained varying degrees of community structure variations, with the highest explanatory power for archaea (66.1%), followed by bacteria (49.0%) and fungi (32.8%)”
Claim · model-written summary
Structural equation modeling indicated plant communities influenced bacterial communities primarily through soil pH and ion contents.
Verbatim
e1“plant communities influenced bacterial communities primarily through modifications in soil pH and ion contents”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors propose soil bacterial diversity as a bioindicator for monitoring degradation in desert steppe ecosystems.
Verbatim
e1“soil bacterial diversity that was sensitive to vegetation shifts and closely linked to soil nutrient dynamics serves as a valuable bioindicator for monitoring and assessing degradation in desert steppe ecosystems”