Interplay of soil characteristics and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi diversity in alpine wetland restoration and carbon stabilization

Hao Tang; Qian Li; Qian Bao; Biao Tang; Kun Li; Yang Ding; Xiaojuan Luo; Qiushu Zeng; Size Liu; Xiangyang Shu; Weijia Liu; Lei Du

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1376418

Interplay of soil characteristics and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi diversity in alpine wetland restoration and carbon stabilization

Front Microbiol. 2024 Apr 10:15:1376418. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1376418. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Hao Tang^{1

2}, Qian Li³, Qian Bao^{1

2}, Biao Tang⁴, Kun Li⁵, Yang Ding^{1

2

6}, Xiaojuan Luo², Qiushu Zeng², Size Liu⁷, Xiangyang Shu^{1

2}, Weijia Liu⁸, Lei Du^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Land Resources Evaluation and Monitoring in Southwest (Sichuan Normal University), Ministry of Education, Chengdu, China.
² The Faculty of Geography Resource Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China.
³ College of Resources, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
⁴ Sichuan Provincial Cultivated Land Quality and Fertilizer Workstation, Chengdu, China.
⁵ Sichuan Academy of Forestry, Chengdu, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China.
⁷ Research Center for Carbon Sequestration and Ecological Restoration, Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory, Chengdu, China.
⁸ Chengdu Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Alpine wetlands are critical ecosystems for global carbon (C) cycling and climate change mitigation. Ecological restoration projects for alpine grazing wetlands are urgently needed, especially due to their critical role as carbon (C) sinks. However, the fate of the C pool in alpine wetlands after restoration from grazing remains unclear. In this study, soil samples from both grazed and restored wetlands in Zoige (near Hongyuan County, Sichuan Province, China) were collected to analyze soil organic carbon (SOC) fractions, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), soil properties, and plant biomass. Moreover, the Tea Bag Index (TBI) was applied to assess the initial decomposition rate (k) and stabilization factor (S), providing a novel perspective on SOC dynamics. The results of this research revealed that the mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) was 1.40 times higher in restored sites compared to grazed sites, although no significant difference in particulate organic carbon (POC) was detected between the two site types. Furthermore, the increased MAOC after restoration exhibited a significant positive correlation with various parameters including S, C and N content, aboveground biomass, WSOC, AMF diversity, and NH₄⁺. This indicates that restoration significantly increases plant primary production, litter turnover, soil characteristics, and AMF diversity, thereby enhancing the C stabilization capacity of alpine wetland soils.

Keywords: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; carbon stabilization; climate change mitigation; ecological restoration; tea bag index.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42307351), Start-up Funding from Sichuan Normal University (XJ20210431 and XJ20230384), Key Laboratory of Land Resources Evaluation and Monitoring in Southwest (Sichuan Normal University), Ministry of Education, International Cooperation Fund (TDSYS202313).