RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 The effect of sheep grazing abandonment on soil bacterial communities in productive mountain grasslands
A1 Fernández Guisuraga, José Manuel
A1 Calvo Galván, María Leonor
A1 Ansola González, Gemma
A1 Pinto Prieto, Rayo
A1 Sáenz de Miera Carnicer, Luis Enrique
A2 Ecologia
K1 Ecología. Medio ambiente
K1 Diversity
K1 Land-use change
K1 Livestock
K1 Microorganisms
K1 OTU
K1 Structural equation modeling
K1 ecolo
AB [EN] Livestock grazing abandonment entails important shifts on the overall ecosystem function, but the effects of this land-use change on specific bacterial taxa remain poorly understood in mountain grasslands. Moreover, we currently lack knowledge about the feedbacks between changes in ecosystem functions affected by livestock abandonment in mountain grasslands and the soil bacterial communities. Here, we evaluated the behavior of bacterial communities' structure and composition at taxa level as a function of short (1-year) and long-term (15-years) grazing abandonment in a mountain grassland. We also linked the observed responses in the bacterial communities to changes in several ecosystem functions (i.e. primary production, plant species biodiversity, carbon stocks and soil fertility). The alpha diversity of the bacterial communities did not show a significant response as a consequence of grazing abandonment. However, we identified significant changes on the overall composition of soil bacterial communities between the long-term abandoned grassland areas and grazed or abandoned areas in the short term. We also evidenced a balance between the number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) whose relative abundance is favored by livestock grazing (19.51 %) and those with higher relative abundances in long-term grazing exclusion areas (20.23 %) that could behave as indicators of grazing abandonment. Structural Equation Modeling analyses proved that several bacterial taxa associated with relevant ecosystem functions, such as Rhodospirillales order within Alphaproteobacteria phylum, featured significant changes in their relative abundance between grazing treatments. The direct and indirect effects of grazing exclusion on woody species encroachment and soil organic carbon were strongly linked to the changes in the abundance of bacterial taxa indicators. The assessment of the bacterial community response to livestock abandonment in mountain grasslands may thus provide early warning signs before subtle changes in ecosystem functions occur.
PB Elsevier
SN 0048-9697
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10612/15324
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10612/15324
NO Fernández-Guisuraga, J. M., Calvo, L., Ansola, G., Pinto, R., & Sáenz de Miera, L. E. (2022). The effect of sheep grazing abandonment on soil bacterial communities in productive mountain grasslands. Science of the Total Environment, 851. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2022.158398
DS BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
RD 25-abr-2024