Plants, soil properties and microbes directly and positively drive ecosystem multifunctionality in a plantation chronosequence

Abstract

Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) is the main plantation species in the subtropical region of China. However, the shift in ecosystem multifunctionality with stand development remains largely unexplored for these plantations. This study used a chronosequence to investigate the variations of ecosystem multifunctionality by employing individual functions and identified its driving factors in Chinese fir plantations. The findings provide strong evidence that the individual functions of carbon stocks, water regulation and wood production increased with stand ages, but the tradeoff of individual functions did not significantly increase ecosystem multifunctionality. Soil microbial parameters (the abundances of bacteria, fungi and actinomycete), soil properties (soil moisture, total carbon and total nitrogen), and plant parameters (the shrub layer cover and total understory cover) exhibited positive correlations with ecosystem multifunctionality. The structural equation model revealed that plants, soil properties and microbes pathways explained 83% of the total variance in ecosystem multifunctionality. Results showed that plants, soil microbes and properties directly and significantly affected ecosystem multifunctionality with path coefficients of 0.404, 0.487 and 0.334, respectively. Soil microbes were identified as the top direct predictor for ecosystem multifunctionality, while plant and soil properties had strong direct and positive effects on ecosystem multifunctionality. These results verified that soil microbes, plants and soil properties directly and positively regulated ecosystem multifunctionality. Our findings demonstrate that ecosystem multifunctionality should be considered as a comprehensive ecological indicator for ecosystem services and functions, and sustainable plantation management. This study highlights the importance of conserving soil microbes for maintaining multifunctionality in Chinese fir plantations.

Microbial diversity drives soil multifunctionality along reclamation chronosequence in an opencast coal mine

“…The multidiversity index was calculated by averaging the standardized scores of Shannon diversity of archaea, bacteria, and fungi. The standardized scores ranged from 0 to 1 (Jing et al, 2015; Soliveres et al, 2016; Wang et al, 2022).…”

Rhizosphere element circling, multifunctionality, aboveground productivity and trade-offs are better predicted by rhizosphere rare taxa

“…The rhizosphere physicochemical properties and C, N, and P-circling enzyme activities were assayed using the methods listed in previous studies ( Zheng et al, 2019 ; Ding et al, 2020a , b ) and the Supplementary Description of Method . Briefly, rhizosphere soil pH was measured with a suspension (soil: water = 1:2.5 w/v); Water content (WC, %) was obtained by oven-drying at 105°C ( Wang et al, 2022 ). Rhizosphere C-circling functions were characterized as follows ( Bowker et al, 2013 ; Bastida et al, 2016 ; Luo et al, 2018 ; Ding et al, 2020a ): organic carbon (g kg −1 , OC) was assayed using potassium dichromate volumetric method, β-glucosidase (C-circling enzyme, μmol d −1 g −1 dry soil, βG) was detected using an ELISA test kit (Shanghai Enzyme-linked Biotechnology Co., Ltd., China).…”

Development of Microbial Indicators in Ecological Systems

“…The microbial community structure can indicate the conversion of the forest ecosystem’s multifunctionality. Soil fungus has exhibited the strongest indicator functions in forest multifunctional conversion in Chinese fir, so it can be proposed as a bioindicator in forest ecosystem management [ 39 ]. The microbial community can also influence agricultural management in Amazon forest soils.…”