Herbivore Dung Promotes Plant Litter Decomposition Rate in a Semi-arid Grassland Ecosystem

Wang, Yanan; Li, FrankYonghong; Liu, Yang; Cheng, Jianwei; Wang, Yadong; Liu, Jiayue; Wang, Xinyu; Li, Yanlong

doi:10.1007/s10021-022-00784-3

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The normal with no treatment as control (CK). Previous studies indicated nutrient contents and ratios in the dung are largely difference, which mainly determined by the nutrient composition of the dairy cow food and its body nutrient content (Sitters et al, 2017;Schick et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2022). In the present study, the dung was identical depending on same total mixed ration for the cow, and the same solid-liquid separation process.…”

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…Therefore, we can conclude that the increase in other nutrients' availabilities by the combined application of urea and dung mostly resulted from dung, as dung contains these nutrients in the organic form as well as available form. Many studies have reported that dung excreted by cow can increase both total and available nutrients in grassland soil (Aarons et al, 2004;Guo and Li, 2012;Chillo et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2022). This means that the dung can act as an organic fertilizer in our study.…”

Section: Application Of Dung Improved Soil Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 73%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A novel application method of dung in restoring a degraded meadow steppe of Northern China

Hou,

Bai,

Sun

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The rapid increase in amount of dung by intensive livestock feeding has caused serious environmental problems. Natural grasslands are limited by nutrients’ availability while the dung contains nutrients that cannot be directly used by plants. The lack of effective way to release the plant available nutrients from dung greatly limits the use of dung in an environmentally friendly way. We developed a novel methodology to effectively use dung in restoration of degraded grasslands by applying dung with urea and decomposition inducer in a field experiment. We further explored the mechanisms underlying the positive effect of the combined application of dung, urea and the inducer on a degraded grassland by monitoring changes in soil, plant and community characteristics for three consecutive years under combined application of urea and dung (UD), urea, dung and decomposition inducer (UDI), and no application as control (CK) in a degraded meadow steppe in Northern China. Application of UD and UDI significantly increased soil moisture, soil total nutrients, available macronutrients, and vegetation indexes. Soil nutrients and vegetation indexes were significantly higher by application of UDI than that of UD. Soil moisture was found to be a main driving factor in aboveground biomass for each treatment. In contrast, aboveground biomass was positively related to both soil moisture and soil nutrients in each experimental year, regardless of treatments. When all data were pooled as a whole, structural equation modeling analysis indicated that the UDI-induced increase in aboveground biomass was achieved by both increasing soil moisture, and soil total nutrients and available nutrients. The inducer can accelerate dung decomposition and enhance release of nutrients from dung to soil, thus contributing to restoration of degraded grasslands. Our results demonstrate a novel way to directly use dung by combining application of urea, dung and decomposition inducer in restoration of degraded meadow steppe.

show abstract

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 52%

Section: Application Of Dung Improved Soil Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 73%

A novel application method of dung in restoring a degraded meadow steppe of Northern China

Hou,

Bai,

Sun

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Compared to plant litter, the organic matter in animal dung generally decomposes at a faster rate due to the presence of a more diverse and abundant decomposer community [28]. Nevertheless, it is evident that the composition of dung decomposers varies significantly among different regions or ecosystems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Secondly, compared to plant detritus, animal detritus is an ephemeral resource but very rich in nutrients. The nitrogen content of dung is two to three times higher than that of plant litter [18,28]. Moreover, the rates of nutrient turnover and organic matter decomposition of animal detritus are undoubtedly quicker than plant detritus [24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Influences of Rainfall Intensity and Timing on the Assemblage of Dung Beetles and the Rate of Dung Removal in an Alpine Meadow

Sun,

Tang,

et al. 2023

Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Changes in precipitation patterns, including rainfall intensity and rainfall timing, have been extensively demonstrated to impact biological processes and associated ecosystem functions. However, less attention has been paid to the effects of rainfall intensity and rainfall timing on the assembly of detritivore communities and the decomposition rate of detritus such as animal dung. In a grazed alpine meadow on the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, we conducted a manipulative experiment involving two levels of rainfall intensity (heavy rainfall, 1000 mL/5 min; light rainfall, 100 mL/5 min) and five levels of rainfall timing (0, 2, 4, 24, and 48 h after yak dung deposition). The aim was to determine the effects of rainfall intensity, timing, and their interaction on the assemblage of dung beetles and dung removal rate during the early stage (i.e., 96 h after yak dung deposition) of dung decomposition. Light rainfall significantly increased species richness in the treatment of 48 h after dung pats were deposited. Heavy rainfall significantly decreased beetle abundance in both the 0 h and 48 h treatments while light rainfall had no effect on beetle abundance. Dung mass loss was significant lower in the 2 h treatment compared to other treatments regardless of rainfall intensity. The structural equation model further revealed that the species richness of dung beetles and dung mass loss were significantly affected by rainfall timing but not by rainfall intensity. However, no significant relationships were observed between any variables examined. These findings suggest that changes in precipitation patterns can influence both the structure of dung beetles and the rate of dung decomposition but may also decouple their relationship under a certain circumstance. Therefore, it is crucial to pay greater attention to fully understand local variability between the biological processes and ecosystem functions within a global climate change scenario.

show abstract

Dung-soil microbial community coalescence can exert dual effects on alpine grasslands through changing soil microbiomes

Liu,

Wang,

Liu

et al. 2023

J Soils Sediments

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Herbivore Dung Promotes Plant Litter Decomposition Rate in a Semi-arid Grassland Ecosystem

Cited by 6 publications

References 48 publications

A novel application method of dung in restoring a degraded meadow steppe of Northern China

A novel application method of dung in restoring a degraded meadow steppe of Northern China

The Influences of Rainfall Intensity and Timing on the Assemblage of Dung Beetles and the Rate of Dung Removal in an Alpine Meadow

Dung-soil microbial community coalescence can exert dual effects on alpine grasslands through changing soil microbiomes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About