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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1413973
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring the Effects of Human Activities and Climate Change on Soil Microorganisms in Grasslands View all 8 articles

Response of soil fungal-community structure and function to land conversion to agriculture in desert grassland

Provisionally accepted
Peng Kang Peng Kang 1*Yaqing Pan Yaqing Pan 2*Xuan Qu Xuan Qu 1*Yichao Ran Yichao Ran 1*Chenxi Yang Chenxi Yang 1*Bingru Liu Bingru Liu 1
  • 1 North Minzu University, Yinchuan, China
  • 2 Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Land conversion to agriculture is an important factor affecting soil ecological processes in the desert grasslands of northern China. However, soil fungal-community structure and function in response to Land conversion remain unclear. In this study, desert grassland, artificial shrubland, and land conversion were investigated in the western part of the Maowusu Sandland (Yanchi, Ningxia; Dingbian, Shaanxi). We found that land conversion significantly increased soil total carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and available phosphorous and potassium contents. In the early stage of conversion to agricultural (April), soil fungal operational taxonomic units and abundance-based coverage estimator were lower than those of dessert grasslands and shrubland plots and had significant correlations with pH, electric conductivity, and available phosphorus and potassium. The dominant phyla strongly correlated with soil physicochemical properties. Concomitantly, the relative abundance of Glomeromycota was significantly lower, and the complexity of the network in the land conversion plots was lower than that in the shrubland plots. In the late stage of land conversion (September), soil fungal operational taxonomic units and abundance-based coverage estimator were lower in the conversion plots than in the desert grassland plots, with more complex network relationships compared to the desert grassland or shrubland plots. Symbiotrophic groups, a functional group of desert grassland soil fungi, can be used as a predictor of environmental change; in addition, land conversion decreases the relative abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal functional groups. Our study highlights the response of soil fungal communities and functions to human disturbances in 删除了: 366 删除了: reclamation 删除了: reclamation Microbial community, assembly patterns, and network relationships 2 desert grasslands. Considering the potential of land conversion to agriculture to influence soil secondary salinization, there is a need for continued observation of soil ecological health over the time continuum of land conversion to agriculture.

    Keywords: Desert grassland, land conversion, fungal community, network, functional groups

    Received: 08 Apr 2024; Accepted: 06 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kang, Pan, Qu, Ran, Yang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Peng Kang, North Minzu University, Yinchuan, China
    Yaqing Pan, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu Province, China
    Xuan Qu, North Minzu University, Yinchuan, China
    Yichao Ran, North Minzu University, Yinchuan, China
    Chenxi Yang, North Minzu University, Yinchuan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.