Rodent disturbances in arid regions drive ephemeral plant diversity but deteriorate soil health

Abstract

The desert ecosystem is an important ecological barrier to prevent desertification and maintain the stability of arid zone ecosystem and regional security. The degree of change and species composition of pioneer species during the early spring recovery of the community can be used as important indicators of regional ecology and to predict subsequent ecological stability in the early spring. Rodents serve as ecological engineers in the ecosystem through their behavior, and they influence the composition of biological communities. In this study, we analyzed the correlations between soil physicochemical properties, community assembly, plant diversity and microbial diversity in the areas disturbed by gerbils (RD) and those not disturbed by gerbils (CK) with ephemeral plants in the arid zone and comprehensively evaluated the soil quality (SQI) and ecosystem sustainability (SI). The results showed the following: (1) soil nutrients within the two different areas were significantly different owing to disturbance, and the biodiversity in the RD was greater than that in the CK, but there was low homogeneity; (2) There were significant differences in plant diversity and microbial diversity within the two different; (3) The correlation analysis of community assembly showed that the niche width of the community in RD was higher and the community composition was more affected by deterministic factors, while that in CK was the opposite; and (4) The analytical results showed that the SI and SQI in the RD were smaller than those in the CK. In conclusion, disturbance by rodents enhances biodiversity in arid areas but detrimental to the long-term development of communities. Therefore, it is important to explore the rational use of disturbance relationships to “complement the strengths and weaknesses,” provide a theoretical basis for future reasonable control of disturbance, maintain the ecological development of arid areas, and improve the ecological stability of desert arid regions.