Responses of soil microbial diversity, network complexity and multifunctionality to three land-use changes

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Soil Science
• Microbiology

Background:

• Land-use change poses a major threat to ecosystem services.
• Soil microbiomes are crucial for ecosystem functions, but their response to land-use change is poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of land-use change on soil microbial communities (bacteria, fungi, protists) and soil multifunctionality in alpine ecosystems.
• To analyze microbial co-occurrence networks and their relationship with soil functions under different land-use scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a space-for-time substitution strategy with 150 alpine soil samples.
• Assessed bacterial, fungal, and protistan diversity and community structure.
• Analyzed microbial co-occurrence networks and soil multifunctionality.
• Employed random forest modeling to identify key drivers of soil multifunctionality.

Main Results:

• Forest to grassland conversion enhanced fungal and bacterial diversity and altered microbial community structures more than other conversions.
• This conversion increased microbial network complexity and robustness, while forest to shrubland showed an opposite trend.
• Soil multifunctionality changes were linked to microbial network modules, not always to microbial diversity variations.

Conclusions:

• Land-use changes elicit divergent responses from belowground multitrophic organisms.
• Microbial network modules play a significant role in explaining and potentially forecasting soil multifunctionality.
• Understanding these microbial dynamics is vital for managing ecosystem services under land-use change.