Soil inoculation improves ecosystem function in degraded grasslands

Abstract

The improvement and protection of ecosystem function are important in the restoration of grassland ecosystem, especially in degraded grasslands. Soil inoculation provides an effective way for the restoration of degraded ecosystems. Here we conducted a field soil inoculation experiment and selected two well-developed soils (meadow steppe and upland meadow) to transplant them into degraded grasslands at three inoculation amounts (0.01 m3, 0.03 m3 and 0.05 m3 per square meter). After three years of soil inoculation, we assessed the ecosystem multifunctionality (including plant productivity, and functions related to nutrient cycling) of different treatments with different identity and amount of soil inoculation. Principal co-ordinates analysis suggested that different identity of soil inoculum resulted in different development of soil fungal and bacterial communities. Ecosystem multifunctionality was significantly improved with the increase of soil inoculation amounts. Spearman’s correlation analysis showed a positive association between ecosystem multifunctionality and soil fungal richness, plant cover, and the amount of soil inoculation. Our results indicate that soil inoculation can enhance ecosystem multifunctionality by affecting the soil biotic and plant communities. Our finding has important implications for better restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in degraded grassland ecosystems.

Authors 4

1. Xu Han

   Chinese Academy of Sciences · Institute of Applied Ecology · University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

   University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

2. Ying bin Li

   Chinese Academy of Sciences · Institute of Applied Ecology

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

3. Qi Li corresponding

   Chinese Academy of Sciences · Institute of Applied Ecology

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

4. Т. Martijn Bezemer Aachen Institute of Biology, Above-Belowground Interactions group

   Leiden University · Netherlands Institute of Ecology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO- KNAW), P.O. Box 50, Wageningen 6700 AB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

   Institute of Biology, Above-Belowground Interactions group, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9505, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands