Abstract
Aims
Global environmental changes are known to affect terrestrial ecosystems functions (i.e., plant growth and carbon storage). However, how plants and soil microorganisms respond to warming and nitrogen deposition in dry ecosystems with strong seasonal precipitation remains largely unexplored.
Methods
Based on a 13-year manipulative field experiment, we investigated the effects of warming and nitrogen addition on soil microbial communities and plant net photosynthetic rates during dry and wet months in a desert steppe in Inner Mongolia.
Results
We found that in the wet month, warming and nitrogen addition significantly increased soil microbial biomass. Yet, warming and nitrogen addition significantly increased soil inorganic nitrogen and leaf nitrogen concentration, thus promoting an increase in the net photosynthetic rate of Stipa breviflora. Moreover, warming and nitrogen addition significantly shifted soil microbial composition with an increase in soil bacterial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) but a reduction in fungal PLFAs. The increased soil inorganic nitrogen indirectly enhanced leaf nitrogen and plant photosynthesis by changing soil microbial community structure. These changes were not significant in the dry month.
Conclusions
Our study indicates that warming and nitrogen addition can promote plant photosynthesis by increasing soil nitrogen availability and changing soil microbial community structure. These changes only occurred when there was sufficient precipitation. These results highlight the crucial role of the soil microbial community and precipitation availability in influencing plant growth responses to global change drivers such as warming and nitrogen deposition. These findings suggest the importance of manipulating multiple factors rather than single factors in global change experiments and the role of plant and soil microbial interactions in ecosystem functions (i.e., plant growth and carbon storage) under global change.
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Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Code availability
Not applicable.
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The National Natural Science Foundation of China (31760146), the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation (171018), the Applied Technology Research and Development Fund of Inner Mongolia (2021GG0088), the Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China (2021BS03006), the Major Science and Technology Projects of Hohhot Science and Technology Plan Project (2019), and the Innovative Team of Grassland Resources from the Ministry of Education of China (IRT_17R59).
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H.R. and G.H. designed and supported the research. H.R. and Y.Z. conducted the research (sampling and laboratory analysis). Y.Z. and H.R. performed the data analyses. Y.Z., H.R., K.Y. and G.H. conceived this study and wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to manuscript revisions and gave final approval for publication.
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Zhu, Y., Yu, K., Wu, Q. et al. Seasonal precipitation and soil microbial community influence plant growth response to warming and N addition in a desert steppe. Plant Soil 482, 245–259 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05684-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05684-y