Cattle grazing management affects soil microbial diversity and community network complexity in the Northern Great Plains.
Sci Total Environ
; 912: 169353, 2024 Feb 20.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38104847
ABSTRACT
Soil microbial communities play a vital role in the biogeochemical cycling and ecological functioning of grassland, but may be affected by common land uses such as cattle grazing. Changes in microbial diversity and network complexity can affect key ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling. However, it is not well known how microbial diversity and network complexity respond to grazing in the Northern Great Plains. Consequently, it is important to understand whether variation in grazing management alters the diversity and complexity of grassland microbial communities. We compared the effect of intensive adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing and conventional grazing practices on soil microbial communities using 16S/ITS amplicon sequencing. Samples were collected from grasslands in 13 AMP ranches and 13 neighboring, conventional ranches located across the Canadian prairies. We found that AMP grazing increased fungal diversity and evenness, and led to more complex microbial associations. Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, and Bacteroidetes were keystone taxa associated with AMP grazing, while Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Armatimonadetes were keystone taxa under conventional grazing. Besides overall grazing treatment effects, specific grazing metrics like cattle stocking rate and rest-to-grazing ratio affected microbial richness and diversity. Bacterial and fungal richness increased with elevated stocking rate, and fungal richness and diversity increased directly with the rest-to-grazing ratio. These results suggest that AMP grazing may improve ecosystem by enhancing fungal diversity and increasing microbial network complexity and connectivity.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Ecossistema
/
Microbiota
Limite:
Animals
/
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article