Biological interactions control bacterial but not fungal β diversity during vegetation degradation in saline-alkaline soil.

The patterns and mechanisms by which soil bacterial and fungal community β-diversity respond to vegetation degradation in saline-alkaline soils are currently not clear, and in particular, the role of biotic interactions is relatively unknown. To investigate the assembly of bacterial and fungal communities in topsoil (0-10 cm) in saline-alkaline soils at different stages of vegetation degradation, the β-Mean Nearest Classification Unit Distance, the β-Nearest Taxon Index, and the Raup-Crick index were calculated. The relative importance of biotic and environmental factors in controlling β diversity under deterministic processes was also quantified by using relative importance analyses.

Disentangling Responses of the Subsurface Microbiome to Wetland Status and Implications for Indicating Ecosystem Functions.

In this study, we analyzed microbial community composition and the functional capacities of degraded sites and restored/natural sites in two typical wetlands of Northeast China-the Phragmites marsh and the Carex marsh, respectively. The degradation of these wetlands, caused by grazing or land drainage for irrigation, alters microbial community components and functional structures, in addition to changing the aboveground vegetation and soil geochemical properties. Bacterial and fungal diversity at the degraded sites were significantly lower than those at restored/natural sites, indicating that soil microbial groups were sensitive to disturbances in wetland ecosystems.

The peatlands developing history in the Sanjiang Plain, NE China, and its response to East Asian monsoon variation.

Studying the peatlands accumulation and carbon (C) storage in monsoonal areas could provide useful insights into the response of C dynamics to climate variation in the geological past. Here, we integrated 40 well-dated peat/lake sediment cores to reveal the peatlands evolution history in the Sanjiang Plain and examine its links to East Asian monsoon variations during the Holocene. The results show that 80% peatlands in the Sanjiang Plain initiated after 4.

Changes in stream peak flow and regulation in Naoli River watershed as a result of wetland loss.

Hydrology helps determine the character of wetlands; wetlands, in turn, regulate water flow, which influences regional hydrology. To understand these dynamics, we studied the Naoli basin where, from 1954 to 2005, intensive marshland cultivation took place, and the watershed's wetland area declined from 94.4 × 10(4)ha to 17.