Precipitation overrides warming in mediating soil nitrogen pools in an alpine grassland ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau

Biodiversity in mountain soils above the treeline

Biological diversity in mountain ecosystems has been increasingly studied over the last decade. This is also the case for mountain soils, but no study to date has provided an overall synthesis of the current state of knowledge. Here we fill this gap with a first global analysis of published research on cryptogams, microorganisms, and fauna in mountain soils above the treeline, and a structured synthesis of current knowledge. Based on a corpus of almost 1400 publications and the expertise of 37 mountain soil scientists worldwide, we summarise what is known about the diversity and distribution patterns of each of these organismal groups, specifically along elevation, and provide an overview of available knowledge on the drivers explaining these patterns and their changes. In particular, we document an elevation-dependent decrease in faunal diversity above the treeline, while for cryptogams there is an initial increase above the treeline, followed by a decrease towards the nival belt. Thus, our data confirm the key role that elevation plays in shaping the biodiversity and distribution of these organisms in mountain soils. The response of prokaryote diversity to elevation, in turn, was more diverse, whereas fungal diversity appeared to be substantially influenced by plants. As far as available, we describe key characteristics, adaptations, and functions of mountain soil species, and despite a lack of ecological information about the uncultivated majority of prokaryotes, fungi, and protists, we illustrate the remarkable and unique diversity of life forms and life histories encountered in alpine mountain soils. By applying rule- as well as pattern-based literature-mining approaches and semi-quantitative analyses, we identified hotspots of mountain soil research in the European Alps and Central Asia and revealed significant gaps in taxonomic coverage, particularly among biocrusts, soil protists, and soil fauna. We further report thematic priorities for research on mountain soil biodiversity above the treeline and identify unanswered research questions. Building upon the outcomes of this synthesis, we conclude with a set of research opportunities for mountain soil biodiversity research worldwide. Soils in mountain ecosystems above the treeline fulfil critical functions and make essential contributions to life on land. Accordingly, seizing these opportunities and closing knowledge gaps appears crucial to enable science-based decision making in mountain regions and formulating laws and guidelines in support of mountain soil biodiversity conservation targets.

Warming Promotes Nitrogen and Carbon Cycles in Global Grassland

Grasslands, standing as one of Earth's major ecosystems, offer numerous services vital to human well-being. The productivity of grasslands hinges on the availability of soil reactive nitrogen, which is highly sensitive to climatic variations. Using an extensive synthesis of 1242 experimental observations, reinforced by multiple models, we show that warming as a single driver of climate change intensifies nitrogen dynamics in grasslands. This could lead to increases in net primary productivity of 1% to 9% and escalate nitrogen leakage into the environment by 22% to 141%. Under the warming SSP2-4.5 scenario, we foresee an annual boost of 17 million tons per year (Tg yr-1) of nitrogen inputs, predominantly via biological nitrogen fixation, compared to the baseline scenario by 2050. Total nitrogen harvest is projected to climb by 12 Tg yr-1. However, the nitrogen surplus surge is expected to increase by 5 Tg yr-1, potentially intensifying nitrogen pollution. To counter this, adaptation measures must aim at curtailing reactive nitrogen losses while preserving increased nitrogen harvest. This could reduce nitrogen input and surplus by 10 and 20 Tg yr-1, respectively, while boosting nitrogen harvest by 10 Tg yr-1, potentially yielding economic gains of up to 121 billion USD by 2050. In shaping climate change adaptation policies, it is critical to balance the potential benefits and drawbacks of forging effective management approaches.

The impact of global change factors on the functional genes of soil nitrogen and methane cycles in grassland ecosystems: a meta-analysis

Soil functional genes in grasslands are crucial for processes like nitrogen fixation, nitrification, denitrification, methane production, and oxidation, integral to nitrogen and methane cycles. However, the impact of global changes on these genes is not well understood. We reviewed 84 studies to examine the effects of nitrogen addition (N), warming (W), increased precipitation (PPT +), decreased precipitation (PPT-), and elevated CO2 (eCO2) on these functional genes. For nitrogen cycling, global changes mainly boost genes involved in nitrification but reduce those in denitrification, with nirK being the most sensitive. Most nitrogen fixation-related genes did not show a significant response. Among single factors, N and PPT + have the most significant effects. The impact of global changes on nitrogen cycling genes is largely additive, and their interaction with N is particularly influential. For methane cycling, global changes notably affect mcrA, while only PPT + significantly reduces pmoA. The magnitude and duration of global change treatments are more critical than the treatment form for nitrogen cycling genes. For methane cycling, the form and intensity of nitrogen addition, along with treatment duration, affect pmoA abundance. We also identified a competitive relationship between methane oxidation and nitrification and a complex coupling with denitrification. This study provides new insights into microbial responses in nitrogen and methane cycling under global changes, with significant implications for experimental design and management strategies in grassland ecosystems.

Mycorrhizal associations relate to stable convergence in plant-microbial competition for nitrogen absorption under high nitrogen conditions

Nitrogen (N) immobilization (Nim, including microbial N assimilation) and plant N uptake (PNU) are the two most important pathways of N retention in soils. The ratio of Nim to PNU (hereafter Nim:PNU ratio) generally reflects the degree of N limitation for plant growth in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the key factors driving the pattern of Nim:PNU ratio across global ecosystems remain unclear. Here, using a global data set of 1018 observations from 184 studies, we examined the relative importance of mycorrhizal associations, climate, plant, and soil properties on the Nim:PNU ratio across terrestrial ecosystems. Our results show that mycorrhizal fungi type (arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) or ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi) in combination with soil inorganic N mainly explain the global variation in the Nim:PNU ratio in terrestrial ecosystems. In AM fungi-associated ecosystems, the relationship between Nim and PNU displays a weaker negative correlation (r = -.06, p < .001), whereas there is a stronger positive correlation (r = .25, p < .001) in EM fungi-associated ecosystems. Our meta-analysis thus suggests that the AM-associated plants display a weak interaction with soil microorganisms for N absorption, while EM-associated plants cooperate with soil microorganisms. Furthermore, we find that the Nim:PNU ratio for both AM- and EM-associated ecosystems gradually converge around a stable value (13.8 ± 0.5 for AM- and 12.1 ± 1.2 for EM-associated ecosystems) under high soil inorganic N conditions. Our findings highlight the dependence of plant-microbial interaction for N absorption on both plant mycorrhizal association and soil inorganic N, with the stable convergence of the Nim:PNU ratio under high soil N conditions.

Significant effects of precipitation frequency on soil respiration and its components-A global synthesis

Global warming intensifies the hydrological cycle, which results in changes in precipitation regime (frequency and amount), and will likely have significant impacts on soil respiration (R_s ). Although the responses of R_s to changes in precipitation amount have been extensively studied, there is little consensus on how R_s will be affected by changes in precipitation frequency (PF) across the globe. Here, we synthesized the field observations from 296 published papers to quantify the effects of PF on R_s and its components using meta-analysis. Our results indicated that the effects of PF on R_s decreased with an increase in background mean annual precipitation. When the data were grouped by climate conditions, increased PF showed positive effects on R_s under the arid condition but not under the semi-humid or humid conditions, whereas decreased PF suppressed R_s across all the climate conditions. The positive effects of increased PF mainly resulted from the positive response of heterotrophic respiration under the arid condition while the negative effects of decreased PF were mainly attributed to the reductions in root biomass and respiration. Overall, our global synthesis provided for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the divergent effects of PF on R_s and its components across climate regions. This study also provided a framework for understanding and modeling responses of ecosystem carbon cycling to global precipitation change.

Nitrogen addition, rather than altered precipitation, stimulates nitrous oxide emissions in an alpine steppe

Anthropogenic-driven global change, including changes in atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition and precipitation patterns, is dramatically altering N cycling in soil. How long-term N deposition, precipitation changes, and their interaction influence nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions remains unknown, especially in the alpine steppes of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). To fill this knowledge gap, a platform of N addition (10 g m-2 year-1) and altered precipitation (±50% precipitation) experiments was established in an alpine steppe of the QTP in 2013. Long-term N addition significantly increased N2O emissions. However, neither long-term alterations in precipitation nor the co-occurrence of N addition and altered precipitation significantly affected N2O emissions. These unexpected findings indicate that N2O emissions are particularly susceptible to N deposition in the alpine steppes. Our results further indicated that both biotic and abiotic properties had significant effects on N2O emissions. N2O emissions occurred mainly due to nitrification, which was dominated by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, rather than ammonia-oxidizing archaea. Furthermore, the alterations in belowground biomass and soil temperature induced by N addition modulated N2O emissions. Overall, this study provides pivotal insights to aid the prediction of future responses of N2O emissions to long-term N deposition and precipitation changes in alpine ecosystems. The underlying microbial pathway and key predictors of N2O emissions identified in this study may also be used for future global-scale model studies.

Soil Moisture but Not Warming Dominates Nitrous Oxide Emissions During Freeze–Thaw Cycles in a Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau Alpine Meadow With Discontinuous Permafrost

Large quantities of organic matter are stored in frozen soils (permafrost) within the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP). The most of QTP regions in particular have experienced significant warming and wetting over the past 50 years, and this warming trend is projected to intensify in the future. Such climate change will likely alter the soil freeze–thaw pattern in permafrost active layer and toward significant greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) release. However, the interaction effect of warming and altered soil moisture on N2O emission during freezing and thawing is unclear. Here, we used simulation experiments to test how changes in N2O flux relate to different thawing temperatures (T5–5°C, T10–10°C, and T20–20°C) and soil volumetric water contents (VWCs, W15–15%, W30–30%, and W45–45%) under 165 F–T cycles in topsoil (0–20 cm) of an alpine meadow with discontinuous permafrost in the QTP. First, in contrast to the prevailing view, soil moisture but not thawing temperature dominated the large N2O pulses during F–T events. The maximum emissions, 1,123.16–5,849.54 μg m–2 h–1, appeared in the range of soil VWC from 17% to 38%. However, the mean N2O fluxes had no significant difference between different thawing temperatures when soil was dry or waterlogged. Second, in medium soil moisture, low thawing temperature is more able to promote soil N2O emission than high temperature. For example, the peak value (5,849.54 μg m–2 h–1) and cumulative emissions (366.6 mg m–2) of W30T5 treatment were five times and two to four times higher than W30T10 and W30T20, respectively. Third, during long-term freeze–thaw cycles, the patterns of cumulative N2O emissions were related to soil moisture. treatments; on the contrary, the cumulative emissions of W45 treatments slowly increased until more than 80 cycles. Finally, long-term freeze–thaw cycles could improve nitrogen availability, prolong N2O release time, and increase N2O cumulative emission in permafrost active layer. Particularly, the high emission was concentrated in the first 27 and 48 cycles in W15 and W30, respectively. Overall, our study highlighted that large emissions of N2O in F–T events tend to occur in medium moisture soil at lower thawing temperature; the increased number of F–T cycles may enhance N2O emission and nitrogen mineralization in permafrost active layer.

Prediction of soil organic carbon and the C:N ratio on a national scale using machine learning and satellite data: A comparison between Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3 and Landsat-8 images

Soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N) are the main indicators of soil quality and health and play an important role in maintaining soil quality. Together with Landsat, the improved spatial and temporal resolution Sentinel sensors provide the potential to investigate soil information on various scales. We analyzed and compared the potential of satellite sensors (Landsat-8, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3) with various spatial and temporal resolutions to predict SOC content and C:N ratio in Switzerland. Modeling was carried out at four spatial resolutions (800 m, 400 m, 100 m and 20 m) using three machine learning techniques: support vector machine (SVM), boosted regression tree (BRT) and random forest (RF). Soil prediction models were generated in these three machine learners in which 150 soil samples and different combinations of environmental data (topography, climate and satellite imagery) were used as inputs. The prediction results were evaluated by cross-validation. Our results revealed that the model type, modeling resolution and sensor selection greatly influenced outputs. By comparing satellite-based SOC models, the models built by Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 performed the best and the worst, respectively. C:N ratio prediction models based on Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 showed better results than Sentinel-3. However, the prediction models built by Sentinel-3 had competitive or better accuracy at coarse resolutions. The BRT models constructed by all available predictors at a resolution of 100 m obtained the best prediction accuracy of SOC content and C:N ratio; their relative improvements (in terms of R²) compared to models without remote sensing data input were 29.1% and 58.4%, respectively. The results of variable importance revealed that remote sensing variables were the best predictors for our soil prediction models. The predicted maps indicated that the higher SOC content was mainly distributed in the Alps, while the C:N ratio shared a similar distribution pattern with land use and had higher values in forest areas. This study provides useful indicators for a more effective modeling of soil properties on various scales based on satellite imagery.

Comparison of soil microbial community between reseeding grassland and natural grassland in Songnen Meadow

Microorganisms have important ecological functions in ecosystems. Reseeding is considered as one of the main strategies for preventing grassland degradation in China. However, the response of soil microbial community and diversity to reseeding grassland (RG) and natural grassland (NG) remains unclear, especially in the Songnen Meadow. In this study, the soil microbial community compositions of two vegetation restoration types (RG vs NG) were analyzed using a high-throughput sequencing technique. A total of 23,142 microbial OTUs were detected, phylogenetically derived from 11 known bacterial phyla. Soil advantage categories included Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, which together accounted for > 78% of the all phyla in vegetation restoration. The soil microbial diversity was higher in RG than in NG. Two types of vegetation restoration had significantly different characteristics of soil microbial community (P < 0.001). Based on a molecular ecological network analysis, we found that the network in RG had a longer average path distance and modularity than in NG network, making it more resilient to environment changes. Meanwhile, the results of the canonical correspondence analysis and molecular ecological network analysis showed that soil pH (6.34 ± 0.35 in RG and 7.26 ± 0.28 in NG) was the main factor affecting soil microbial community structure, followed by soil moisture (SM) in the Songnen meadow, China. Besides, soil microbial community characteristics can vary significantly in different vegetation restoration. Thus, we suggested that it was necessary and reasonable for this area to popularize reseeding grassland in the future.

Global warming shifts the composition of the abundant bacterial phyllosphere microbiota as indicated by a cultivation-dependent and -independent study of the grassland phyllosphere of a long-term warming field experiment

The leaf-colonizing bacterial microbiota was studied in a long-term warming experiment on a permanent grassland, which had been continuously exposed to increased surface temperature (+2°C) for more than six years. Two abundant plant species, Arrhenatherum elatius and Galium album, were studied. Surface warming reduced stomata opening and changed leaf metabolite profiles. Leaf surface colonization and the concentration of leaf-associated bacterial cells were not affected. However, bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene amplicon Illumina sequencing showed significant temperature effects on the plant species-specific phyllosphere microbiota. Warming partially affected the concentrations of cultured bacteria and had a significant effect on the composition of most abundant cultured plant species-specific bacteria. The abundance of Sphingomonas was significantly reduced. Sphingomonas isolates from warmed plots represented different phylotypes, had different physiological traits and were better adapted to higher temperatures. Among Methylobacterium isolates, a novel phylotype with a specific mxaFtype was cultured from plants of warmed plots while the most abundant phylotype cultured from control plots was strongly reduced. This study clearly showed a correlation of long-term surface warming with changes in the plant physiology and the development of a physiologically and genetically adapted phyllosphere microbiota.

Effects of increased precipitation combined with nitrogen addition and increased temperature on methane fluxes in alpine meadows of the Tibetan Plateau

Climate change and anthropogenic activities have resulted in increased atmospheric methane (CH₄) concentration. Increased nitrogen deposition and precipitation accompanies climate warming and can change soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics and microbial processes and alter CH₄ fluxes. To quantify the sink of the vast alpine meadows of the Tibetan Plateau and to examine how precipitation addition (P), warming (W), and nitrogen addition (N) affect CH₄ fluxes in alpine meadows, we conducted continuous 3-growing season experiments in an alpine meadow using the static chamber and gas chromatograph method. Soil CH₄ samples were collected during the early, peak, and late stages of the growing season from 2015 to 2017. Our results suggested that neither P, W, nor N had an interaction effect on soil CH₄ uptake. P significantly increased and decreased the copies number of particulate methane monooxygenase alpha subunit (pmoA) and methyl-coenzyme M reductase alpha subunit (mcrA), respectively. However, P significantly decreased CH₄ uptake, particularly under the combined treatment of P and N. Compared with the control, CH₄ uptake decreased under P, N, PW, and PN by 50.64%, 6.24%, 39.37%, and 75.06%, respectively, whereas under W and WN CH₄ uptake increased by 16.19% and 7.56%, respectively. Soil CH₄ uptake was positively correlated with soil temperature and pmoA and negatively correlated with soil moisture and NH₄⁺-N content. CH₄ uptake was significantly affected by the sampling period. CH₄ uptake was significantly lower rates during peak growing season compared with those during the early and late stages of the growing season. Our results suggest that, (1) CH₄ fluxes of alpine grassland ecosystems are more sensitive to P than W or N, and (2) precipitation controls CH₄ flux response to increasing nitrogen deposition in alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, future research should focus on the response and feedback of CH₄ uptake to changes in precipitation.

Warming affects foliar fungal diseases more than precipitation in a Tibetan alpine meadow

The effects of global change on semi-natural and agro-ecosystem functioning have been studied extensively. However, less well understood is how global change will influence fungal diseases, especially in a natural ecosystem. We use data from a 6-yr factorial experiment with warming (simulated using infrared heaters) and altered precipitation treatments in a natural Tibetan alpine meadow ecosystem, from which we tested global change effects on foliar fungal diseases at the population and community levels, and evaluated the importance of direct effects of the treatments and community-mediated (indirect) effects (through changes in plant community composition and competence) of global change on community pathogen load. At the population level, we found warming significantly increased fungal diseases for nine plant species. At the community level, we found that warming significantly increased pathogen load of entire host communities, whereas no significant effect of altered precipitation on community pathogen load was detected. We concluded that warming influences fungal disease prevalence more than precipitation does in a Tibetan alpine meadow. Moreover, our study provides new experimental evidence that increases in disease burden on some plant species and for entire host communities is primarily the direct effects of warming, rather than community-mediated (indirect) effects.

Increased precipitation accelerates soil organic matter turnover associated with microbial community composition in topsoil of alpine grassland on the eastern Tibetan Plateau

Large quantities of carbon are stored in alpine grassland of the Tibetan Plateau, which is extremely sensitive to climate change. However, it remains unclear whether soil organic matter (SOM) in different layers responds to climate change analogously, and whether microbial communities play vital roles in SOM turnover of topsoil. In this study we measured and collected SOM turnover by the ¹⁴C method in alpine grassland to test climatic effects on SOM turnover in soil profiles. Edaphic properties and microbial communities in the northwestern Qinghai Lake were investigated to explore microbial influence on SOM turnover. SOM turnover in surface soil (0-10 cm) was more sensitive to precipitation than that in subsurface layers (10-40 cm). Precipitation also imposed stronger effects on the composition of microbial communities in the surface layer than that in deeper soil. At the 5-10 cm depth, the SOM turnover rate was positively associated with the bacteria/fungi biomass ratio and the relative abundance of Acidobacteria, both of which are related to precipitation. Partial correlation analysis suggested that increased precipitation could accelerate the SOM turnover rate in topsoil by structuring soil microbial communities. Conversely, carbon stored in deep soil would be barely affected by climate change. Our results provide valuable insights into the dynamics and storage of SOM in alpine grasslands under future climate scenarios.

Climate warming reduces the temporal stability of plant community biomass production

Anthropogenic climate change has emerged as a critical environmental problem, prompting frequent investigations into its consequences for various ecological systems. Few studies, however, have explored the effect of climate change on ecological stability and the underlying mechanisms. We conduct a field experiment to assess the influence of warming and altered precipitation on the temporal stability of plant community biomass in an alpine grassland located on the Tibetan Plateau. We find that whereas precipitation alteration does not influence biomass temporal stability, warming lowers stability through reducing the degree of species asynchrony. Importantly, biomass temporal stability is not influenced by plant species diversity, but is largely determined by the temporal stability of dominant species and asynchronous population dynamics among the coexisting species. Our findings suggest that ongoing and future climate change may alter stability properties of ecological communities, potentially hindering their ability to provide ecosystem services for humanity.

Temporal stability of plant communities is driven by several mechanisms and may be influenced by climate change. Here it is shown that warming, but not precipitation, reduces species asynchrony in an alpine grassland, leading to lower biomass temporal stability.