The Changes in Soil Microorganisms and Soil Chemical Properties Affect the Heterogeneity and Stability of Soil Aggregates before and after Grassland Conversion

The conversion of grasslands to croplands is common in the agro-pastoral ecotone and brings potential risks to soil health and environmental safety. As the forming unit of soil structure, the status of soil aggregates determines soil health and is affected by multiple factors. This study investigated the changes in soil aggregate and main related factors in conversion grasslands with different managed years. Grassland conversion ages were selected as experimental treatments, which included unmanaged grassland, 3 years, 10 years, 30 years, and 50 years since grassland conversion. After grassland conversion, the proportion of large macro-aggregates with a particle size of >2 mm in the 0–10 cm soil layer decreased, small macro-aggregates with a particle size of 2–0.25 mm and micro-aggregates with a particle size of 0.25–0.053 mm increased, while aggregates with a particle size of <0.053 mm had no significant change. Soil chemical properties, most microorganisms and the soil aggregate stability indices MWD and GMD decreased at the early stage (<30 years) of the managed grasslands. After about 50 years of cultivation, soil chemical properties and microorganisms returned to equal or higher levels compared to unmanaged grasslands. However, the stability of aggregates (mean weight diameter (MWD) and geometric mean diameter (GMD)) did not recover to the initial state. MWD and GMD were positively correlated with most bacterial factors (total phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs), bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, actinomycetes and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)) and some soil chemical properties (carbon, nitrogen and polysaccharides). According to the partial least square structural equation model, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and phosphorus in the 0–10 cm soil layer explained 33.0% of the variance in MWD by influencing microorganisms. These results indicated that the stability of aggregates was directly driven by microorganisms and indirectly affected by soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and phosphorus

Aqueous Extracts of Three Herbs Allelopathically Inhibit Lettuce Germination but Promote Seedling Growth at Low Concentrations

Allelopathy is an important process in plant communities. The effects of allelopathy on seed germination and seedling development have been extensively investigated. However, the influences of extract soaking time and concentration on the foregoing parameters are poorly understood. Here, we conducted a seed germination assay to determine the allelopathic effects of the donor herbs Achnatherum splendens (Trin.) Nevski, Artemisia frigida Willd., and Stellera chamaejasme L., from a degraded grassland ecosystem in northern China, on lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) seed germination and early seedling growth. Extract soaking times (12 h or 24 h) did not exhibit significantly different effects on lettuce seed germination or seedling development. However, all aqueous herb extracts inhibited lettuce seed germination and root length (RI 0) at both low (0.005 g mL−1) and high (0.05 g mL−1) concentrations. Moreover, A. splendens extracts increased seedling biomass (RI > 0) and synthetical allelopathic effect (SE > 0) at both concentrations. In contrast, both A. frigida and S. chamaejasme extracts had hormesis effects, which stimulate at low concentrations (RI > 0) but inhibit at high concentrations (RI A. frigida and S. chamaejasme in degraded grasslands. Reseeding allelopathy-promoting species such as A. splendens may be beneficial to grassland restoration. The present study also demonstrated that seedling biomass, root and shoot length, and seed germination rate are the optimal bioindicators in allelopathy assays and could be more representative when they are combined with the results of multivariate analyses

Home-field advantage of litter decomposition differs between leaves and fine roots

International audienc

Soil fauna promote litter decomposition but do not alter the relationship between leaf economics spectrum and litter decomposability

The leaf economics spectrum (LES) describes co-variation in leaf functional traits relevant to carbon and nutrient economics across plant species. It has been proposed that LES can be a useful predictor of litter decomposability, thereby influencing ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling. However, the role of soil fauna in mediating the LES-decomposability relationship is largely unexplored. We evaluated leaf litter decomposability of 21 co-occurring tree species in a subtropical forest in China. We used litterbags with different mesh sizes to control litter accessibility to meso- and macrofauna. We quantified 9 leaf functional traits and 12 litter traits, and investigated how these traits were related to the losses of litter mass, carbon and nitrogen under different fauna treatments. Litter mass loss varied from 32.3 to 80.6% after 400 days of decomposition in the field. Meso- and macrofauna presence increased on average litter mass loss by 8.4%, carbon loss by 11% and nitrogen loss by 14.4%. Litter nutrient contents and stoichiometry generally had no significant effect on decomposition rates. Instead, structure-related traits such as toughness, lignin and labile compounds were generally strongly related to decomposition rates, suggesting that decomposition processes are strongly limited by energy availability. We found significant linear relationships between LES and litter mass or carbon loss, but not nitrogen loss. However, meso- and macrofauna presence did not significantly alter the regression slopes of these relationships, suggesting that meso- and macrofauna exert similar effects on decomposition of litter originating from tree species characterized by different life strategies. This study advances our understanding of the soil fauna in driving litter decomposition in subtropical forests