Abstract:1. Human land uses, such as agriculture, can leave long-lasting legacies as ecosystems recover. As a consequence, active restoration may be necessary to overcome landuse legacies; however, few studies have evaluated the joint effects of agricultural history and restoration on ecological communities. Those that have studied this joint effect have largely focused on plants and ignored other communities, such as soil microbes. 2. We conducted a large-scale experiment to understand how agricultural history and res… Show more
“…Agricultural practices may also have a long-lasting legacy in soil biota which can shape the composition and dynamics of these new forests (de la Peña et al, 2006;Turley et al, 2020).…”
1. Forests have expanded across Europe over the last centuries as a consequence of farmland (agricultural and pasture) abandonment. Agricultural practices usually increase soil fertility and reduce the diversity and abundance of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi, essential mutualists of many woody species in temperate and Mediterranean forests. The recovery of this biotic interaction after the cessation of human activities is, thus, crucial for the re-establishment of functional forest ecosystems.2. Here we addressed the legacies of past land use and the recovery of the mutualism between ECM fungi and Fagus sylvatica trees in recent beech forests (<50 years) in Northeast Spain. Soil and root samples were collected in six long-established and eight recent beech forests to analyse soil abiotic properties and the ECM fungi associated with beech roots (Illumina DNA metabarcoding of ECM tips).3. Up to 609 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) of ECM fungi were identified, with 220 ASVs found in both forest types. Recent forests had a significantly lower soil organic matter and phosphorus content, which had a significant effect on the community structure of ECM fungi in beech roots. Moreover, beech trees in recent forests interacted with less fungal taxa but had a higher relative abundance of Ascomycota. Tarzetta spp. (Ascomycota, Pezizales) and Lactarius blennius (Basidiomycota, Russulales) emerge as the particular taxa associated with recent and long-established forests respectively. 4. More specialized mutualistic networks with a lower species normalized degree were found in recent forests, which might result in a lower quality and resilience of the ECM mutualism.
5.Synthesis. Land-use history modulated the mycorrhizal symbiosis in regenerating beech forests through changes in soil organic matter and nitrogen, which were the main drivers of the differences in fungal community composition and functional types associated with beech trees in recent forests.
“…Agricultural practices may also have a long-lasting legacy in soil biota which can shape the composition and dynamics of these new forests (de la Peña et al, 2006;Turley et al, 2020).…”
1. Forests have expanded across Europe over the last centuries as a consequence of farmland (agricultural and pasture) abandonment. Agricultural practices usually increase soil fertility and reduce the diversity and abundance of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi, essential mutualists of many woody species in temperate and Mediterranean forests. The recovery of this biotic interaction after the cessation of human activities is, thus, crucial for the re-establishment of functional forest ecosystems.2. Here we addressed the legacies of past land use and the recovery of the mutualism between ECM fungi and Fagus sylvatica trees in recent beech forests (<50 years) in Northeast Spain. Soil and root samples were collected in six long-established and eight recent beech forests to analyse soil abiotic properties and the ECM fungi associated with beech roots (Illumina DNA metabarcoding of ECM tips).3. Up to 609 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) of ECM fungi were identified, with 220 ASVs found in both forest types. Recent forests had a significantly lower soil organic matter and phosphorus content, which had a significant effect on the community structure of ECM fungi in beech roots. Moreover, beech trees in recent forests interacted with less fungal taxa but had a higher relative abundance of Ascomycota. Tarzetta spp. (Ascomycota, Pezizales) and Lactarius blennius (Basidiomycota, Russulales) emerge as the particular taxa associated with recent and long-established forests respectively. 4. More specialized mutualistic networks with a lower species normalized degree were found in recent forests, which might result in a lower quality and resilience of the ECM mutualism.
5.Synthesis. Land-use history modulated the mycorrhizal symbiosis in regenerating beech forests through changes in soil organic matter and nitrogen, which were the main drivers of the differences in fungal community composition and functional types associated with beech trees in recent forests.
“…It has been reported that microbial communities were not stochastically distributed on a wide scale and their biogeographical patterns were more influenced by soil type and land use (Ranjard et al, 2010). Recently, many anthropogenic activities were carried out to promote agricultural production and ecological restoration (Turley et al, 2019;Bonner et al, 2020;Tian et al, 2020). The Grain for Green program (GfG), a reforestation and ecological restoration program, changed local edaphic characteristics by shaping the structure of bacterial community (Ren et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2019).…”
Soil bacteria participate in nutrient cycling above and below ground to promote ecosystem stability and health. However, the relationship of soil bacteria and environmental factors following the Grain for Green (GfG) program remains poorly understood in southwest China. Soil samples were collected from seven Grain for Green sites that had been revegetated for 15 years. Four of these sites were afforested with a different tree species: Zenia insignis (ZI), Toona sinensis (TS), Castanea mollissima (CM), and Citrus reticulate (CR). One site was revegetated with Zenia insignis and Guimu-1 elephant grass (ZG), and one with only Guimu-1 elephant grass (GM). The remaining site, abandoned cropland (AC), was left to regenerate naturally. Here, we used Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes to explore how the Grain for Green project affected soil bacterial community. We found that Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Acidobacteria were the dominant phyla in these soils. The dominant genera at each revegetation site were also different. The CM, ZI, TS, and AC sites were dominated by Micromonospora, ZG was dominated by Streptomyces, and CR and GM were dominated by Subgroup 6. The bacterial structure was most similar in AC and TS. Correlation analysis showed that the ratio of C:P had positive effects on KD4-96, Intrasporangiaceae, and Gaiella. The ratio of soil N:P was significantly positively correlated with Cupriavidus and Kribbella. The combination of planting Zenia insignis and Guimu-1 elephant grass had the best edaphic benefits, and the approach of planting Citrus reticulate and Toona sinensis needs to be improved. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that plant Simpson index, and soil N:P contributed to 16 and 15.7% of the total variations in the soil bacterial community composition, respectively. Our results suggested that plant diversity (Simpson index) and soil stoichiometric ratio (N:P) were the important factors affecting the bacterial community, and phosphorus was the limiting factor of the bacterial community in the Grain for Green karst region. In the future, revegetation should be accompanied with phosphorus fertilizer and polycultures should be considered.
“…For example, soil respiration, bacterial community structure, enzyme activities and physicochemical properties were different in wheat and apple planting systems (Wang et al, 2018). It is well demonstrated that land-use change, for example, the conversion of forests or grasslands to cultivated lands exert negative impacts on soil microbial diversity and multifunctionality (Berkelmann et al, 2020;Li, Delgado-Baquerizo, et al, 2019;Li, He, et al, 2019;Turley et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2021). However, the effects of the change of planting patterns on soil multifunctionality in the agroecosystems have been little explored.…”
Soil microbes in the topsoil have long been the centre of cropping systems, yet the influence of subsoil microbes on soil functions remains elusive. Sustainable crop management will require an in-depth understanding of interactions of cropping patterns, soil microbials and multifunctionality. This study aimed to explore the relationships between soil microbials and multifunctionality in both topsoil and subsoil of different cropping systems. We did paired samplings from four cash crops and adjacent wheat/ maize rotation system fields at 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm depths on calcareous soils: cotton (C)-wheat (WC), grape (G)-wheat (WG), vegetable (V)-wheat (WV) and watermelon (W)-wheat (WW). The results showed that soil multifunctionality in topsoil was higher than in subsoil across all soil samples. In topsoil, soil multifunctionality in W was significantly higher than other cash crops, and the highest and lowest values were in the WG and WC, respectively. In the subsoil, soil multifunctionality in the C was significantly lower than other cash crops. Across the wheat fields, soil multifunctionality were significantly higher in WG and WW than in WC and WV. The structural equation model showed that soil organic carbon, bacterial community composition and fungal diversity were positively correlated with soil multifunctionality in both soil depths. Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes in topsoil were the important drivers, while Firmicutes and Gemmatimonadetes were in the subsoil. Our results suggest that microbes in both topsoil and subsoil should be integrated into agricultural management practices. The alteration of fungal diversity and bacterial community composition may significantly affect soil multifunctionality in intensive agroecosystems.
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