The Influence of Climate Warming and Humidity on Plant Diversity and Soil Bacteria and Fungi Diversity in Desert Grassland

Our study, which was conducted in the desert grassland of Ningxia in China (E 107.285, N 37.763), involved an experiment with five levels of annual precipitation 33% (R33), 66% (R66), 100% (CK), 133% (R133), 166% (R166) and two temperature levels (inside Open-Top Chamber (OTC) and outside OTC). Our objective was to determine how plant, soil bacteria, and fungi diversity respond to climate change. Our study suggested that plant alpha-diversity in CK and TCK were significantly higher than that of other treatments. Increased precipitation promoted root biomass (RB) growth more than aboveground living biomass (ALB). R166 promoted the biomass of Agropyron mongolicum the most. In the fungi communities, temperature and precipitation interaction promoted alpha-diversity. In the fungi communities, the combination of increased temperature and natural precipitation (TCK) promoted beta-diversity the most, whose distance was determined to be 25,124 according to PCA. In the bacteria communities, beta-diversity in CK was significantly higher than in other treatments, and the distance was determined to be 3010 according to PCA. Soil bacteria and fungi alpha- and beta-diversity, and ALB promoted plant diversity the most. The interactive effects of temperature and precipitation on C, N, and P contents of plants were larger than their independent effects.

Automated summary

The study showed that increased precipitation promoted root growth in plants and the interaction of temperature and precipitation had a promoting effect on the diversity of fungi. In terms of bacteria, the diversity in the CK treatment was significantly higher than in other treatments.