Plant functional traits mediate the response magnitude of plant-litter-soil microbial C: N: P stoichiometry to nitrogen addition in a desert steppe.

Global nitrogen deposition is significantly altering the carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) stoichiometry in terrestrial ecosystems, yet how N deposition simultaneously affects plant-litter-soil-soil microbial stoichiometry in arid grassland is still unclear. In a five-year experimental study conducted in a desert steppe in Northern China, we investigated the effects of N addition on the C:N:P stoichiometry of plants, litter, soil, and soil microbes. We also used structural equation modelling (SEM) exploring the direct or indirect effects of N addition, plant species diversity, functional traits and diversity, soil microbial diversity, soil pH, soil electrical conductivity (EC) and moisture on the stoichiometry in plant-soil system.

Extreme drought does not alter the stability of aboveground net primary productivity but decreases the stability of belowground net primary productivity in a desert steppe of northern China.

Extreme droughts strongly impact grassland ecology, both functionally and structurally. However, a comprehensive understanding of the drought impacts on the ecosystem stability is critical for its sustainable development under changing climate. We experimentally report the impact of extreme drought on the temporal stability of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and belowground net primary productivity (BNPP) in a desert steppe of northern China.

Effects of multi-resource addition on grassland plant productivity and biodiversity along a resource gradient.

The change of plant biodiversity caused by resource-enhancing global changes has greatly affected grassland productivity. However, it remains unclear how multi-resource enrichment induces the effects of multifaceted biodiversity on grassland productivity under different site resource constraints. We conducted a multiple resource addition (MRA) experiment of water and nutrients at three sites located along a resource gradient in northern China.

Increased Precipitation Shapes Relationship between Biochemical and Functional Traits of in Grass-Dominated Rather than Shrub-Dominated Community in a Desert Steppe.

Understanding the effects of precipitation variations on plant biochemical and functional traits is crucial to predict plant adaptation to future climate changes. The dominant species, , plays an important role in maintaining the structure and function of plant communities in the desert steppe, Inner Mongolia. However, little is known about how altered precipitation affects biochemical and functional traits of in different communities in the desert steppe.

Author Correction: Effects of rainfall manipulation and nitrogen addition on plant biomass allocation in a semiarid sandy grassland.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Effects of rainfall manipulation and nitrogen addition on plant biomass allocation in a semiarid sandy grassland.

Extreme climate events and nitrogen (N) deposition are increasingly affecting the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems. However, the response of plant biomass to variations to these global change drivers is still unclear in semi-arid regions, especially in degraded sandy grasslands. In this study, a manipulative field experiment run over two years (from 2017 to 2018) was conducted to examine the effect of rainfall alteration and nitrogen addition on biomass allocation of annuals and perennial plants in Horqin sandy grassland, Northern China.

Biomineralisation performance of bacteria isolated from a landfill in China.

We report an investigation of microbially induced carbonate precipitation by seven indigenous bacteria isolated from a landfill in China. Bacterial strains were cultured in a medium supplemented with 25 mmol/L calcium chloride and 333 mmol/L urea. The experiments were carried out at 30 °C for 7 days with agitation by a shaking table at 130 r/min.

Next-generation sequencing showing potential leachate influence on bacterial communities around a landfill in China.

The impact of contaminated leachate on groundwater from landfills is well known, but the specific effects on bacterial consortia are less well-studied. Bacterial communities in a landfill and an urban site located in Suzhou, China, were studied using Illumina high-throughput sequencing. A total of 153 944 good-quality reads were produced and sequences assigned to 6388 operational taxonomic units.

Inter-specific competition, but not different soil microbial communities, affects N chemical forms uptake by competing graminoids of upland grasslands.

Evidence that plants differ in their ability to take up both organic (ON) and inorganic (IN) forms of nitrogen (N) has increased ecologists' interest on resource-based plant competition. However, whether plant uptake of IN and ON responds to differences in soil microbial community composition and/or functioning has not yet been explored, despite soil microbes playing a key role in N cycling. Here, we report results from a competition experiment testing the hypothesis that soil microbial communities differing in metabolic activity as a result of long-term differences to grazing exposure could modify N uptake of Eriophorum vaginatum L.

Grazing-induced effects on soil properties modify plant competitive interactions in semi-natural mountain grasslands.

Plant-soil feedbacks are widely recognized as playing a significant role in structuring plant communities through their effects on plant-plant interactions. However, the question of whether plant-soil feedbacks can be indirectly driven by other ecological agents, such as large herbivores, which are known to strongly modify plant community structure and soil properties, remains poorly explored. We tested in a glasshouse experiment how changes in soil properties resulting from long-term sheep grazing affect competitive interactions (intra- and inter-specific) of two graminoid species: Nardus stricta, which is typically abundant under high sheep grazing pressure in British mountain grasslands; and Eriophorum vaginatum, whose abundance is typically diminished under grazing.