Deyeuxia angustifolia Kom. encroachment changes soil physicochemical properties and microbial community in the alpine tundra under climate change

Plant encroachment in alpine regions, caused by global changes and human activities, has been well documented. However, our knowledge of the effects of plant encroachment on belowground microbial communities is limited. Here, we investigated soil physicochemical properties and microbial community structures under the impact of plant encroachment along an elevation gradient in the alpine tundra of the Changbai Mountain, China. We found that plant encroachment had insignificant (P > 0.05) and inconsistent effects on the α-diversity (number of observed OTUs, Shannon, Chao1, Faith's PD) of soil microbial communities. Plant encroachment indirectly influenced soil microbial community structures by altering soil physicochemical properties, which differed between elevations and plant types (P < 0.05). In all, 40 bacterial indicator taxa and 57 fungal indicator taxa significantly shifted in response to plant encroachment, some of which were involved in soil biogeochemical cycle. Overall, our results documented the impacts of plant encroachment on soil microbial diversity and community composition, and provided a scientific basis for predicting future changes in alpine ecosystem structure and function and its subsequent feedbacks to global change.

Phragmites australis meets Suaeda salsa on the "red beach": Effects of an ecosystem engineer on salt-marsh litter decomposition

Suaeda salsa is a pioneer species in coastal wetlands of East Asia and recently an ecosystem engineer species, Phragmites australis, has started to enter into S. salsa communities owing to either autogenic or external drivers. The consequences of this phenomenon on the ecosystem functions of coastal wetlands are still unclear, especially for decomposition processes. Here we compared the decomposition rate of S. salsa litter, and associated litter chemistry dynamics, between sites with and without P. australis encroachment. We conducted a litter transplantation experiment to tease apart the effects of litter quality and decomposing environment or decomposer community composition. Our results showed that P. australis encroachment led to higher carbon and phosphorus losses of S. salsa litter, but equal losses of total mass, lignin, hemicellulose and nitrogen. Phragmites australis encroachment might affect decomposition rate indirectly by making S. salsa produce litter with higher lignin concentrations or via increasing the fungal diversity for decomposition. Moreover, P. australis as an ecosystem engineer might also alter the allocation of total phosphorus between the plants and the soils in coastal wetlands. Our findings indicate that P. australis could impact aboveground and belowground carbon and nutrient dynamics in coastal wetlands, and highlight the important consequences that encroaching plant species, especially ecosystem engineers, can have on ecosystem functions and services of coastal wetlands, not only in East Asia but probably also elsewhere in the world.