title: Soil bacterial community responses to warming and grazing in a Tibetan alpine meadow.
abstract: Warming and grazing significantly affect the structure and function of an alpine meadow ecosystem. Yet, the responses of soil microbes to these disturbances are not well understood. Controlled asymmetrical warming (+1.2/1.7°C during daytime/nighttime) with grazing experiments were conducted to study microbial response to warming, grazing and their interactions. Significant interactive effects of warming and grazing were observed on soil bacterial α-diversity and composition. Warming only caused significant increase in bacterial α-diversity under no-grazing conditions. Grazing induced no substantial differences in bacterial α-diversity and composition irrespective of warming. Warming, regardless of grazing, caused a significant increase in soil bacterial community similarity across space, but grazing only induced significant increases under no-warming conditions. The positive effects of warming on bacterial α-diversity and grazing on community similarity were weakened by grazing and warming, respectively. Soil and plant variables explained well the variations in microbial communities, indicating that changes in soil and plant properties may primarily regulate soil microbial responses to warming in this alpine meadow. The results suggest that bacterial communities may become more similar across space in a future, warmed climate and moderate grazing may potentially offset, at least partially, the effects of global warming on the soil microbial diversity.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Yaoming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
authors.forename: Qiaoyan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing 100101, China wangsp@itpcas.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Shiping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology & Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sichuan 610041, China.
authors.forename: Xiangzhen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Wentso
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
authors.forename: Caiyun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
authors.forename: Zhenhua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoxue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Xine
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D057232:Global Warming; D065948:Grassland; D060434:Herbivory; D006358:Hot Temperature; D064307:Microbiota; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology; D012756:Sheep; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D012987:Soil
keywords: Tibetan alpine meadow; bacterial composition; bacterial diversity; grazing; interaction; warming