Reasonable management of perennial planting grassland contributes to positive succession of soil microbial community in Sanjiangyuan of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China

Abstract

Abstract Aims Grassland reconstruction is a major approach to alleviate the "black beach" in Sanjiangyuan of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It is vital to understand how to manage the planting grassland after reconstruction. And which artificial grassland management pattern is more likely to restore the degraded grassland of "black beach"? To provide the scientific basis for the restoration of "black beach", we investigated the changes in vegetation characteristics, soil physicochemical properties, and soil microbial community structure of planting grassland under different management patterns, and explored the effect of the management patterns on community succession of planting grassland. Methods In this study, vegetation characteristics and soil physicochemical properties were measured by field investigation and laboratory analyses, respectively. Soil microbial community composition was determined by high-throughput sequencing techniques. Important Findings The results showed that there were significant differences in vegetation characteristics, soil physicochemical properties, and soil microbial community structure of the planting grassland under different management patterns. Actinobacteria and Basidiomycota were mainly controlled by vegetation plant species diversity, aboveground biomass (AGB) and soil organic carbon (SOC). Shannon-Wiener index, AGB, and SOC peaked and the relative abundance of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) annotated by Actinobacteria and Basidiomycota were significantly enriched under the management pattern of the planting once treatment. Additionally, the soil had the highest bacterial diversity and the lowest fungal diversity under the planting once treatment, becoming a "bacterial" soil. These vegetation characteristics and soil environment were more conducive to overall positive community succession, indicating that the planting once treatment is the most reasonable management pattern for restoring the "black beach".