Reduced soil multifunctionality and microbial network complexity in degraded and revegetated alpine meadows

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Soil Science
• Microbiology

Background:

• Alpine meadow soils are crucial for environmental sustainability and land management.
• Microbial interactions' role in soil multifunctionality under disturbance and restoration is understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate microbial community metrics, network properties, and assembly processes in alpine meadows.
• Link these metrics to soil functions along a degradation-restoration gradient.
• Assess the impact of restoration on microbial communities and soil functions.

Main Methods:

• Analyzed soil bacterial and fungal communities and their network properties.
• Assessed soil functions including hydraulic conductivity and nitrogen availability.
• Examined microbial assembly processes (stochastic vs. deterministic).

Main Results:

• Meadow degradation reduced soil hydraulic conductivity, nitrogen availability, and multifunctionality.
• Degradation weakly affected microbial abundance and diversity but reduced bacterial network complexity.
• Artificial restoration with monocultures failed to restore multifunctionality and destabilized bacterial networks.

Conclusions:

• Microbial network complexity, rather than alpha diversity, is a key predictor of soil multifunctionality.
• Soil fungi are more stable than bacteria in disturbed alpine meadows.
• Low plant diversity in restoration efforts may hinder the recovery of ecosystem functions.