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Ma Q, Zhu Y, Wang Y, Liu T, Qing X, Liu J, Xiao Y, Song Y, Yue Y, Yu H, Wang J, Zhong Z, Wang D, Wang L. Livestock grazing modifies soil nematode body size structure in mosaic grassland habitats. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2024; 351:119600. [PMID: 38042077 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119600] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2023] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 12/04/2023]
Abstract
Body size is closely related to the trophic level and abundance of soil fauna, particularly nematodes. Therefore, size-based analyses are increasingly prominent in unveiling soil food web structure and its responses to anthropogenic disturbances, such as livestock grazing. Yet, little is known about the effects of different livestock on the body size structure of soil nematodes, especially in grasslands characterized by local habitat heterogeneity. A four-year field grazing experiment from 2017 to 2020 was conducted in a meadow steppe characterized by typical mosaics of degraded hypersaline patches and undegraded hyposaline patches to assess the impacts of cattle and sheep grazing on the body size structure of soil nematodes within and across trophic groups. Without grazing, the hypersaline patches harbored higher abundance of large-bodied nematodes in the community compared to the hyposaline patches. Livestock grazing decreased large-bodied nematodes within and across trophic groups mainly by reducing soil microbial biomass in the hypersaline patches, with sheep grazing resulting in more substantial reductions compared to cattle grazing. The reduction in large-bodied nematode individuals correspondingly resulted in decreases in nematode community-weighted mean (CWM) body size, nematode biomass, and size spectra slopes. However, both cattle and sheep grazing had minimal impacts on the CWM body size and size spectra of total nematodes in the hyposaline patches. Our findings suggest that livestock grazing, especially sheep grazing, has the potential to simplify soil food webs by reducing large-bodied nematodes in degraded habitats, which may aggravate soil degradation by weakening the bioturbation activities of soil fauna. In light of the widespread land use of grasslands by herbivores of various species and the ongoing global grassland degradation of mosaic patches, the recognition of the trends revealed by our findings is critical for developing appropriate strategies for grassland grazing management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Quanhui Ma
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Yu Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization & Heilongjiang Xingkai Lake Wetland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station & Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China
| | - Yao Wang
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Ting Liu
- Department of Plant Pathology, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China
| | - Xue Qing
- Department of Plant Pathology, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China
| | - Jushan Liu
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Yingli Xiao
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Yueqing Song
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Yonghuan Yue
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Haoran Yu
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Jianyong Wang
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Zhiwei Zhong
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Deli Wang
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
| | - Ling Wang
- Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China.
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Bennett JJR, Bera BK, Ferré M, Yizhaq H, Getzin S, Meron E. Phenotypic plasticity: A missing element in the theory of vegetation pattern formation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2311528120. [PMID: 38060562 PMCID: PMC10723140 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2311528120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Regular spatial patterns of vegetation are a common sight in drylands. Their formation is a population-level response to water stress that increases water availability for the few via partial plant mortality. At the individual level, plants can also adapt to water stress by changing their phenotype. Phenotypic plasticity of individual plants and spatial patterning of plant populations have extensively been studied independently, but the likely interplay between the two robust mechanisms has remained unexplored. In this paper, we incorporate phenotypic plasticity into a multi-level theory of vegetation pattern formation and use a fascinating ecological phenomenon, the Namibian "fairy circles," to demonstrate the need for such a theory. We show that phenotypic changes in the root structure of plants, coupled with pattern-forming feedback within soil layers, can resolve two puzzles that the current theory fails to explain: observations of multi-scale patterns and the absence of theoretically predicted large-scale stripe and spot patterns along the rainfall gradient. Importantly, we find that multi-level responses to stress unveil a wide variety of more effective stress-relaxation pathways, compared to single-level responses, implying a previously underestimated resilience of dryland ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jamie J. R. Bennett
- The Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion8499000, Israel
| | - Bidesh K. Bera
- The Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion8499000, Israel
| | - Michel Ferré
- The Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion8499000, Israel
| | - Hezi Yizhaq
- The Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion8499000, Israel
| | - Stephan Getzin
- Department of Ecosystem Modelling, University of Goettingen, Goettingen37073, Germany
| | - Ehud Meron
- The Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion8499000, Israel
- Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva8410501, Israel
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Ge Z. The hidden order of Turing patterns in arid and semi-arid vegetation ecosystems. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2306514120. [PMID: 37816060 PMCID: PMC10589663 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2306514120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Vegetation Turing patterns play a critical role in the ecological functioning of arid and semi-arid ecosystems. However, the long-range spatial features of these patterns have been neglected compared to short-range features like patch shape and spatial wavelength. Drawing inspiration from hyperuniform structures in material science, we find that the arid and semi-arid vegetation Turing pattern exhibits long-range dispersion similar to hyperuniformity. As the degree of hyperuniformity of the vegetation Turing pattern increases, so does the water-use efficiency of the vegetation. This finding supports previous studies that suggest that Turing patterns represent a spatially optimized self-organization of ecosystems for water acquisition. The degree of hyperuniformity of Turing-type ecosystems exhibits significant critical slowing down near the tipping point, indicating that these ecosystems have non-negligible transient dynamical behavior. Reduced rainfall not only decreases the resilience of the steady state of the ecosystem but also slows down the rate of spatial optimization of water-use efficiency in long transient regimes. We propose that the degree of hyperuniformity indicates the spatial resilience of Turing-type ecosystems after strong, short-term disturbances. Spatially heterogeneous disturbances that reduce hyperuniformity lead to longer recovery times than spatially homogeneous disturbances that maintain hyperuniformity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhenpeng Ge
- Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Hangzhou310012, China
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Ji W, Luo Y, Liao Y, Wu W, Wei X, Yang Y, He XZ, Shen Y, Ma Q, Yi S, Sun Y. UAV Assisted Livestock Distribution Monitoring and Quantification: A Low-Cost and High-Precision Solution. Animals (Basel) 2023; 13:3069. [PMID: 37835675 PMCID: PMC10571782 DOI: 10.3390/ani13193069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2023] [Revised: 09/23/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Grazing management is one of the most widely practiced land uses globally. Quantifying the spatiotemporal distribution of livestock is critical for effective management of livestock-grassland grazing ecosystem. However, to date, there are few convincing solutions for livestock dynamic monitor and key parameters quantification under actual grazing situations. In this study, we proposed a pragmatic method for quantifying the grazing density (GD) and herding proximities (HP) based on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). We further tested its feasibility at three typical household pastures on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China. We found that: (1) yak herds grazing followed a rotational grazing pattern spontaneously within the pastures, (2) Dispersion Index of yak herds varied as an M-shaped curve within one day, and it was the lowest in July and August, and (3) the average distance between the yak herd and the campsites in the cold season was significantly shorter than that in the warm season. In this study, we developed a method to characterize the dynamic GD and HP of yak herds precisely and effectively. This method is ideal for studying animal behavior and determining the correlation between the distribution of pastoral livestock and resource usability, delivering critical information for the development of grassland ecosystem and the implementation of sustainable grassland management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenxiang Ji
- Institute of Fragile Eco-Environment, School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, 9 Seyuan Road, Nantong 226019, China (S.Y.)
| | - Yifei Luo
- Institute of Fragile Eco-Environment, School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, 9 Seyuan Road, Nantong 226019, China (S.Y.)
| | - Yafang Liao
- Institute of Fragile Eco-Environment, School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, 9 Seyuan Road, Nantong 226019, China (S.Y.)
| | - Wenjun Wu
- Institute of Fragile Eco-Environment, School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, 9 Seyuan Road, Nantong 226019, China (S.Y.)
| | - Xinyi Wei
- Institute of Fragile Eco-Environment, School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, 9 Seyuan Road, Nantong 226019, China (S.Y.)
| | - Yudie Yang
- Institute of Fragile Eco-Environment, School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, 9 Seyuan Road, Nantong 226019, China (S.Y.)
| | - Xiong Zhao He
- School of Agriculture and Environment, College of Science, Massey University, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand
| | - Yutong Shen
- Institute of Fragile Eco-Environment, School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, 9 Seyuan Road, Nantong 226019, China (S.Y.)
| | - Qingshan Ma
- Forestry Station of Huangnan Prefecture of Qinghai Province, 14 Regong Road, Tongren 811300, China
| | - Shuhua Yi
- Institute of Fragile Eco-Environment, School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, 9 Seyuan Road, Nantong 226019, China (S.Y.)
| | - Yi Sun
- Institute of Fragile Eco-Environment, School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, 9 Seyuan Road, Nantong 226019, China (S.Y.)
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Phase-separation physics underlies new theory for the resilience of patchy ecosystems. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2202683120. [PMID: 36595670 PMCID: PMC9926271 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2202683120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Spatial self-organization of ecosystems into large-scale (from micron to meters) patterns is an important phenomenon in ecology, enabling organisms to cope with harsh environmental conditions and buffering ecosystem degradation. Scale-dependent feedbacks provide the predominant conceptual framework for self-organized spatial patterns, explaining regular patterns observed in, e.g., arid ecosystems or mussel beds. Here, we highlight an alternative mechanism for self-organized patterns, based on the aggregation of a biotic or abiotic species, such as herbivores, sediment, or nutrients. Using a generalized mathematical model, we demonstrate that ecosystems with aggregation-driven patterns have fundamentally different dynamics and resilience properties than ecosystems with patterns that formed through scale-dependent feedbacks. Building on the physics theory for phase-separation dynamics, we show that patchy ecosystems with aggregation patterns are more vulnerable than systems with patterns formed through scale-dependent feedbacks, especially at small spatial scales. This is because local disturbances can trigger large-scale redistribution of resources, amplifying local degradation. Finally, we show that insights from physics, by providing mechanistic understanding of the initiation of aggregation patterns and their tendency to coarsen, provide a new indicator framework to signal proximity to ecological tipping points and subsequent ecosystem degradation for this class of patchy ecosystems.
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Sun GQ, Li L, Li J, Liu C, Wu YP, Gao S, Wang Z, Feng GL. Impacts of climate change on vegetation pattern: Mathematical modeling and data analysis. Phys Life Rev 2022; 43:239-270. [PMID: 36343569 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2022.09.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Climate change has become increasingly severe, threatening ecosystem stability and, in particular, biodiversity. As a typical indicator of ecosystem evolution, vegetation growth is inevitably affected by climate change, and therefore has a great potential to provide valuable information for addressing such ecosystem problems. However, the impacts of climate change on vegetation growth, especially the spatial and temporal distribution of vegetation, are still lacking of comprehensive exposition. To this end, this review systematically reveals the influences of climate change on vegetation dynamics in both time and space by dynamical modeling the interactions of meteorological elements and vegetation growth. Moreover, we characterize the long-term evolution trend of vegetation growth under climate change in some typical regions based on data analysis. This work is expected to lay a necessary foundation for systematically revealing the coupling effect of climate change on the ecosystem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gui-Quan Sun
- Department of Mathematics, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, China; Complex Systems Research Center, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, 519082, China.
| | - Li Li
- School of Computer and Information Technology, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, China
| | - Jing Li
- School of Applied Mathematics, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan, 030006, China
| | - Chen Liu
- Center for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China
| | - Yong-Ping Wu
- College of Physics Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225002, China
| | - Shupeng Gao
- School of Mechanical Engineering and School of Artificial Intelligence, Optics and Electronics (iOPEN), Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian, 710072, China
| | - Zhen Wang
- School of Mechanical Engineering and School of Artificial Intelligence, Optics and Electronics (iOPEN), Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian, 710072, China.
| | - Guo-Lin Feng
- College of Physics Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225002, China; Laboratory for Climate Studies, National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, 100081, China.
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Martin G, Courtial A, Génin A, Ramone H, Dutoit T. Why grazing and soil matter for dry grassland diversity: New insights from multigroup structural equation modeling of micro-patterns. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.879060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Grazing is recognized as a major process driving the composition of plant communities in grasslands, mostly due to the heterogeneous removal of plant species and soil compaction that results in a mosaic of small patches called micro-patterns. To date, no study has investigated the differences in composition and functioning among these micro-patterns in grasslands in relation to grazing and soil environmental variables at the micro-local scale. In this study, we ask (1) To what extent are micro-patterns different from each other in terms of species composition, species richness, vegetation volume, evenness, and functioning? and (2) based on multigroup structural equation modeling, are those differences directly or indirectly driven by grazing and soil characteristics? We focused on three micro-patterns of the Mediterranean dry grassland of the Crau area, a protected area traditionally grazed in the South-East of France. From 70 plant community relevés carried out in three micro-patterns located in four sites with different soil and grazing characteristics, we performed univariate, multivariate analyses and applied structural equation modeling for the first time to this type of data. Our results show evidence of clear differences among micro-pattern patches in terms of species composition, vegetation volume, species richness, evenness, and functioning at the micro-local scale. These differences are maintained not only by direct and indirect effects of grazing but also by several soil variables such as fine granulometry. Biological crusts appeared mostly driven by these soil variables, whereas reference and edge communities are mostly the result of different levels of grazing pressure revealing three distinct functioning specific to each micro-pattern, all of them coexisting at the micro-local scale in the studied Mediterranean dry grassland. This first overview of the multiple effects of grazing and soil characteristics on communities in micro-patterns is discussed within the scope of the conservation of dry grasslands plant diversity.
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