Abstract
Our study, which was conducted in the desert grassland of Ningxia in China (E 107.285, N 37.763), involved an experiment with five levels of annual precipitation 33% (R33), 66% (R66), 100% (CK), 133% (R133), 166% (R166) and two temperature levels (inside Open-Top Chamber (OTC) and outside OTC). Our objective was to determine how plant, soil bacteria, and fungi diversity respond to climate change. Our study suggested that plant α-diversity in CK and TCK were significantly higher than that of other treatments. Increased precipitation promoted root biomass (RB) growth more than aboveground living biomass (ALB). R166 promoted the biomass of Agropyron mongolicum the most. In the fungi communities, temperature and precipitation interaction promoted α-diversity. In the fungi communities, the combination of increased temperature and natural precipitation (TCK) promoted β-diversity the most, whose distance was determined to be 25,124 according to PCA. In the bacteria communities, β-diversity in CK was significantly higher than in other treatments, and the distance was determined to be 3010 according to PCA. Soil bacteria and fungi α- and β-diversity, and ALB promoted plant diversity the most. The interactive effects of temperature and precipitation on C, N, and P contents of plants were larger than their independent effects.
Highlights
One of the most severe environmental problems facing mankind is undoubtedly climate change, which is dominated by climate warming [1]
We systematically studied the changes in temperature and precipitation and the interaction of the two factors: (i) Dynamic changes with regards to about the α-diversity, biomass, organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus of plants in the desert steppe ecosystem; (ii) Dynamic changes with regards to the α- and β-diversity of the soil fungi and soil bacteria; (iii) The synergistic relationship between the α-diversity, biomass, organic carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus of plants, and the α- and β-diversity of the soil fungi and soil bacteria
This study found that increased precipitation promoted the growth of root biomass (RB) more than Aboveground plant living biomass (ALB), but the effect of rising temperature on RB was not clear
Summary
One of the most severe environmental problems facing mankind is undoubtedly climate change, which is dominated by climate warming [1]. During 1982–2012, high latitudes experienced greater temperature increases than middle latitudes, land temperatures increased faster than ocean temperatures, and the average global temperature increased by 0.85 ◦C compared with the same time period (1981–2017). In the context of global climate change, extreme weather events frequently occur, and precipitation is unevenly distributed [2]. Vegetation is the link connecting soil, the atmosphere, and water. As an important part of the terrestrial ecosystem, it plays an “indicator” role in global climate change. The vegetation index reflects surface vegetation characteristics and vegetation cover information [3]. To a large extent it represents the ecological quality of a certain area [4]
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