Abstract
The conversion of natural grasslands to cultivated pastures has a profound effect on the soil habitat conditions, influencing the proportion of soil specialist and generalist microbes, with consequences for the assembly of microbial communities. This often leads to the homogenization of the microbial community and thus favoring stochastic assembly processes. However, there is still a gap in understanding the effect of conversion from natural grasslands to cultivated pastures on soil microbial ecological processes. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the assembly patterns of microbial communities and evaluate the ecological models for generalists and specialist microbes along a grassland management intensification gradient. Through 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we found that the conversion of natural grasslands to cultivated pastures has increased the number of microbial specialists, resulting in stochastic assembly processes due to the decrease in plant diversity. Moreover, the ecological processes governing the assembly of microbial communities were affected by soil and vegetation management. The perennial pasture was more affected by homogenizing selection, owing to the lower plant diversity and uniform plant covering and root development. We have found that the generalists in the grasslands are shaped by niche-based models, while the specialists in natural grasslands are more stochastic in nature. For improved pastures, we have found that lognormal and preemption models are more predominant, suggesting that homogenizing dispersal is more predominant than variable selection. We highlight it is essential to comprehend these assembly models and ecological processes to ensure plant-microbe supporting and provisioning ecosystem services for cattle, and humans while establishing management strategies and conservation policy priorities.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.