Microbial functional changes mark irreversible course of Tibetan grassland degradation

Andreas Breidenbach; Per-Marten Schleuss; Shibin Liu; Dominik Schneider; Michaela A. Dippold; Tilman de la Haye; Georg Miehe; Felix Heitkamp; Elke Seeber; K.E. Mason-Jones; Xingliang Xu; Yang Huanming; Jianchu Xu; Tsechoe Dorij; Matthias Gube; Helge Norf; Jutta Meier; Georg Guggenberger; Yakov Kuzyakov; Sandra Spielvogel

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-30047-7

Microbial functional changes mark irreversible course of Tibetan grassland degradation

Andreas Breidenbach, Per-Marten Schleuss, Shibin Liu, Dominik Schneider, Michaela A. Dippold, Tilman de la Haye, Georg Miehe, Felix Heitkamp, Elke Seeber, K.E. Mason-Jones, Xingliang Xu, Yang Huanming, Jianchu Xu, Tsechoe Dorij, Matthias Gube, Helge Norf, Jutta Meier, Georg Guggenberger, Yakov Kuzyakov, Sandra Spielvogel^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

NIOO - Terrestrial Ecology (TE)

Research output: Contribution to journal/periodical › Article › Scientific › peer-review

66 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Tibetan Plateau’s Kobresia pastures store 2.5% of the world’s soil organic carbon (SOC). Climate change and overgrazing render their topsoils vulnerable to degradation, with SOC stocks declining by 42% and nitrogen (N) by 33% at severely degraded sites. We resolved these losses into erosion accounting for two-thirds, and decreased carbon (C) input and increased SOC mineralization accounting for the other third, and confirmed these results by comparison with a meta-analysis of 594 observations. The microbial community responded to the degradation through altered taxonomic composition and enzymatic activities. Hydrolytic enzyme activities were reduced, while degradation of the remaining recalcitrant soil organic matter by oxidative enzymes was accelerated, demonstrating a severe shift in microbial functioning. This may irreversibly alter the world´s largest alpine pastoral ecosystem by diminishing its C sink function and nutrient cycling dynamics, negatively impacting local food security, regional water quality and climate.

Original language	English
Article number	2681
Pages (from-to)	2681
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30047-7
Publication status	Published - 2022

Keywords

microbiome
soil
degradation
carbon
Grassland
Microbiota
Soil Microbiology
Ecosystem
Carbon/analysis
Soil
Nitrogen/analysis
Tibet

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Breidenbach, A., Schleuss, P.-M., Liu, S., Schneider, D., Dippold, M. A., de la Haye, T., Miehe, G., Heitkamp, F., Seeber, E., Mason-Jones, K. E., Xu, X., Huanming, Y., Xu, J., Dorij, T., Gube, M., Norf, H., Meier, J., Guggenberger, G., Kuzyakov, Y., & Spielvogel, S. (2022). Microbial functional changes mark irreversible course of Tibetan grassland degradation. Nature Communications, 13(1), 2681. Article 2681. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30047-7

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title = "Microbial functional changes mark irreversible course of Tibetan grassland degradation",

abstract = "The Tibetan Plateau{\textquoteright}s Kobresia pastures store 2.5% of the world{\textquoteright}s soil organic carbon (SOC). Climate change and overgrazing render their topsoils vulnerable to degradation, with SOC stocks declining by 42% and nitrogen (N) by 33% at severely degraded sites. We resolved these losses into erosion accounting for two-thirds, and decreased carbon (C) input and increased SOC mineralization accounting for the other third, and confirmed these results by comparison with a meta-analysis of 594 observations. The microbial community responded to the degradation through altered taxonomic composition and enzymatic activities. Hydrolytic enzyme activities were reduced, while degradation of the remaining recalcitrant soil organic matter by oxidative enzymes was accelerated, demonstrating a severe shift in microbial functioning. This may irreversibly alter the world´s largest alpine pastoral ecosystem by diminishing its C sink function and nutrient cycling dynamics, negatively impacting local food security, regional water quality and climate.",

keywords = "microbiome, soil, degradation, carbon, Grassland, Microbiota, Soil Microbiology, Ecosystem, Carbon/analysis, Soil, Nitrogen/analysis, Tibet",

author = "Andreas Breidenbach and Per-Marten Schleuss and Shibin Liu and Dominik Schneider and Dippold, {Michaela A.} and {de la Haye}, Tilman and Georg Miehe and Felix Heitkamp and Elke Seeber and K.E. Mason-Jones and Xingliang Xu and Yang Huanming and Jianchu Xu and Tsechoe Dorij and Matthias Gube and Helge Norf and Jutta Meier and Georg Guggenberger and Yakov Kuzyakov and Sandra Spielvogel",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-022-30047-7",

language = "English",

volume = "13",

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journal = "Nature Communications",

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Breidenbach, A, Schleuss, P-M, Liu, S, Schneider, D, Dippold, MA, de la Haye, T, Miehe, G, Heitkamp, F, Seeber, E, Mason-Jones, KE, Xu, X, Huanming, Y, Xu, J, Dorij, T, Gube, M, Norf, H, Meier, J, Guggenberger, G, Kuzyakov, Y & Spielvogel, S 2022, 'Microbial functional changes mark irreversible course of Tibetan grassland degradation', Nature Communications, vol. 13, no. 1, 2681, pp. 2681. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30047-7

TY - JOUR

T1 - Microbial functional changes mark irreversible course of Tibetan grassland degradation

AU - Breidenbach, Andreas

AU - Schleuss, Per-Marten

AU - Liu, Shibin

AU - Schneider, Dominik

AU - Dippold, Michaela A.

AU - de la Haye, Tilman

AU - Miehe, Georg

AU - Heitkamp, Felix

AU - Seeber, Elke

AU - Mason-Jones, K.E.

AU - Xu, Xingliang

AU - Huanming, Yang

AU - Xu, Jianchu

AU - Dorij, Tsechoe

AU - Gube, Matthias

AU - Norf, Helge

AU - Meier, Jutta

AU - Guggenberger, Georg

AU - Kuzyakov, Yakov

AU - Spielvogel, Sandra

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The Tibetan Plateau’s Kobresia pastures store 2.5% of the world’s soil organic carbon (SOC). Climate change and overgrazing render their topsoils vulnerable to degradation, with SOC stocks declining by 42% and nitrogen (N) by 33% at severely degraded sites. We resolved these losses into erosion accounting for two-thirds, and decreased carbon (C) input and increased SOC mineralization accounting for the other third, and confirmed these results by comparison with a meta-analysis of 594 observations. The microbial community responded to the degradation through altered taxonomic composition and enzymatic activities. Hydrolytic enzyme activities were reduced, while degradation of the remaining recalcitrant soil organic matter by oxidative enzymes was accelerated, demonstrating a severe shift in microbial functioning. This may irreversibly alter the world´s largest alpine pastoral ecosystem by diminishing its C sink function and nutrient cycling dynamics, negatively impacting local food security, regional water quality and climate.

AB - The Tibetan Plateau’s Kobresia pastures store 2.5% of the world’s soil organic carbon (SOC). Climate change and overgrazing render their topsoils vulnerable to degradation, with SOC stocks declining by 42% and nitrogen (N) by 33% at severely degraded sites. We resolved these losses into erosion accounting for two-thirds, and decreased carbon (C) input and increased SOC mineralization accounting for the other third, and confirmed these results by comparison with a meta-analysis of 594 observations. The microbial community responded to the degradation through altered taxonomic composition and enzymatic activities. Hydrolytic enzyme activities were reduced, while degradation of the remaining recalcitrant soil organic matter by oxidative enzymes was accelerated, demonstrating a severe shift in microbial functioning. This may irreversibly alter the world´s largest alpine pastoral ecosystem by diminishing its C sink function and nutrient cycling dynamics, negatively impacting local food security, regional water quality and climate.

KW - microbiome

KW - soil

KW - degradation

KW - carbon

KW - Grassland

KW - Microbiota

KW - Soil Microbiology

KW - Ecosystem

KW - Carbon/analysis

KW - Soil

KW - Nitrogen/analysis

KW - Tibet

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-022-30047-7

DO - 10.1038/s41467-022-30047-7

M3 - Article

C2 - 35562338

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 13

SP - 2681

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

IS - 1

M1 - 2681

ER -

Microbial functional changes mark irreversible course of Tibetan grassland degradation

Abstract

Keywords

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