Soil Bacterial and Fungal Composition and Diversity Responses to Seasonal Deer Grazing in a Subalpine Meadow

Andéole Niyongabo Turatsinze,Fujiang Hou,Tianqi Zhu,Baotian Kang,Saman Bowatte

doi:10.3390/d13020084

Andéole Niyongabo Turatsinze, Fujiang Hou + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/d13020084

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Abstract

Soil microbial composition and diversity are widely recognized for their role in ecological functioning. This study examined the differences of soil microbial communities between two seasonally grazed grasslands. The study area was in the Gansu red deer farm located on the Qilian Mountain range in the Gansu province of northwestern China. This farm adopted a seasonal rotation grazing system whereby grasslands at higher altitudes are grazed in summer (SG), whilst grasslands at lower altitudes are grazed in winter (WG). The soil bacterial and fungal communities were examined by Illumina MiSeq sequencing. We found that soil water content (SWC), organic carbon (OC), total carbon (TC), and total nitrogen (TN) were significantly higher, whereas the C/N ratio was significantly lower in SG than WG pastures. The α-diversity of bacteria was greater than that of fungi in both pastures, while both bacterial and fungal α-diversity were not significantly different between the pastures. The bacterial β-diversity was significantly different between the pastures, but fungal β-diversity was not. The bacterial phylum Actinobacteria and fungal phylum Ascomycota were dominant in both pastures. The relative abundance of Actinobacteria in soil was significantly higher in WG pastures, whereas the relative abundance of Proteobacteria in soil was significantly higher in SG pastures. Significant correlations between bacterial and fungal phyla and soil properties were observed, but this varied between the two grasslands. This study showed that distinct microbial community structures developed in two pastures within the same geographic location that were grazed in different seasons.

Highlights

Most grasslands in the world are grazed by livestock
This study investigated differences in soil properties and the structure of soil microbial communities between two pastures located within the same geographic location (Figure 1 and Table 1), grazed by Gansu red deer in different seasons
We found that soil physicochemical properties between the summer grazed pasture (SG) and winter grazed pasture (WG) pastures were different (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Most grasslands in the world are grazed by livestock. It is widely accepted that animal grazing is beneficial to grassland nutrient cycling [1,2] and biodiversity [3,4]. Livestock trampling on the soil surface can cause soil compaction and pugging, which can increase the bulk density of the soil, affecting soil aeration [10,11]. These changes in soil physical properties can promote surface runoff. To overcome these detrimental effects of continuous grazing, some herders employ a grazing system based on seasonal rotation. This practice is common in some alpine grasslands in the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau (QTP) in China, where a seasonal rotation between higher-altitude grasslands is utilized in summer, and lower-altitude grasslands is utilized in winter [12]

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