Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment最新文献

{"title":"Land use conversion weakens the cascading effects of plant diversity on temporal stability of high trophic levels at multiple spatial scales in grasslands","authors":"Yanhui Hou ,&nbsp;Xiaona Li ,&nbsp;Shaopeng Wang ,&nbsp;Nadja K. Simons ,&nbsp;Dylan Craven ,&nbsp;Chao Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109742","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109742","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Land use intensification is known to imperil biodiversity and ecosystem stability, while the effects of land use conversion on the stability of multiple trophic levels at multiple spatial scales, particularly the linkages between plant diversity and the temporal stability of biomass at high trophic levels, remain to be elucidated. We conducted a 4<img>year field investigation to quantify the temporal stability of biomass for plants and herbivory, predatory, and omnivorous beetles at the species (population stability), community (alpha stability), and among communities (gamma stability) levels as natural grasslands convert to managed grasslands. We found local communities in natural grasslands exhibited greater asynchronous dynamics among species due to high plant diversity, but exhibited more stable population dynamics in managed grasslands, resulting in similar alpha stability and then gamma stability along the land use intensification gradients. Land use conversion decreased the alpha and gamma stability of predators by decreasing asynchronous dynamics among species and communities, respectively, and then decreased beetle alpha and gamma stability. Importantly, our results revealed that plant diversity enhanced the temporal stability of biomass at higher trophic level through the biodiversity cascading effects among trophic levels, but these effects were weakened as natural grasslands convert to managed grasslands. Our findings demonstrate that the negative effects of land use change on temporal stability relies on trophic levels but not spatial scales, and highlight that land use intensification decouples the links between plant diversity and the stability of biomass at higher trophic levels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"392 ","pages":"Article 109742"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143942499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Grassland duration affects soil organic carbon pools only in the topsoil and has limited effects on microbial metabolism","authors":"Claudia Dămătîrcă ,&nbsp;Barbara Moretti ,&nbsp;Laura Zavattaro ,&nbsp;Julia Schroeder ,&nbsp;Christopher Poeplau ,&nbsp;Alexandra Ciorîţă ,&nbsp;Marco Pittarello ,&nbsp;Luisella Celi ,&nbsp;Giampiero Lombardi","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109730","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109730","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The sustainability of agricultural production relies on the regeneration of soil organic carbon (SOC), both in particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated (MAOC) forms. Incorporating grass into cropping systems has often been claimed beneficial for increasing SOC. However, the impact of grass duration -ranging from months to years or decades-, on SOC pools and microbial metabolism throughout the soil profile remains unclear. In this study, the effects of three grass-based forage systems on SOC stocks and their distribution across POC and MAOC fractions, after 29 years in a long-term field experiment in NW Italy was investigated. The grass-based forage systems included: permanent grassland; four years of temporary (ley) grassland in rotation to three years of maize monoculture; and an annual double cropping with eight months of grass in rotation to four months of maize. We also evaluated the relationship between these forage systems and soil microbial traits. Our findings showed that SOC, free POC, occluded POC, and MAOC stocks were significantly lower in temporary grassland and double cropping forage systems compared to permanent grassland, but these effects were confined to the topsoil. SOC stocks and their distribution across fractions were similar in temporary grassland and double cropping grass-based forage systems. No differences related to the grass duration in the forage systems were detectable in the subsoil. Microbial carbon use efficiency was poorly affected by the grass duration, but showed a significant depth gradient, decreasing in the topsoil and increasing in the subsoil, primarily driven by changes in pH and soil C:N ratios. Similarly, C-degrading enzymatic activities were influenced more by soil depth than by the grass-based forage system. Overall, our results highlighted the critical role of permanent grassland in promoting SOC accumulation. However, TG as well as DC also played an important role in mitigating SOC depletion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"392 ","pages":"Article 109730"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143942500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Earthworms mediate the effect of diversifying crop rotations on soil organic carbon incorporation, soil structure formation and microbial activity","authors":"María Pía Rodríguez ,&nbsp;Anahí Domínguez ,&nbsp;Luciano Andrés Gabbarini ,&nbsp;Héctor Javier Escudero ,&nbsp;Luis Gabriel Wall ,&nbsp;José Camilo Bedano","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109751","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109751","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Diversifying crop rotations aims to improve soil fertility and productivity. In many farming systems earthworms offer great promise to help achieve this goal, due to their impacts on soil organic matter dynamics, nutrient cycling, and soil structure. We assessed the effect of diversifying crop rotations on the contribution of earthworms to soil organic carbon incorporation, structure formation, and microbial activity regulation. We conducted a microcosms experiment for 15 days, with each microcosm containing 5 individuals of <em>Aporrectodea caliginosa</em> and 20 g of different crop residue combinations representing common crop rotation schemes in the Pampas: no residue (NR), soybean (S), soybean plus maize (SM) and vetch, maize and soybean (VMS). <em>A. caliginosa</em> produced 40–135 % fewer casts in VMS (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001), but these, along with those in SM, had 36 % and 25 % more coarse particulate organic carbon than bulk soil, and 100–165 % more than NR and S casts (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001). Casts in SM had 23–42 % more fine particulate organic carbon than casts in the other treatments and 42 % more than bulk soil (<em>p</em> = 0.0002). Additionally, casts in VMS and SM, had 35–70 % higher mean weight diameter (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001) and 30–1400 % higher proportion of water-stable earthworm macroaggregates compared to S and NR (BMa: <em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001; SMa: <em>p</em> = 0.0235). Casts in VMS had higher α-glucosidase (39 %) (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001), β-glucosidase (220 %) (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001), phosphomonoesterase (48 %) (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001) and <em>N</em>-acetyl-glucosaminidase (36 %) (<em>p</em> = 0.0008) activity than bulk soil, and higher β-glucosidase (70–134 %) (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001), cellobiohydrolase (30–500 %) (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001) and phosphomonoesterase (60–340 %) (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.0001) activity than casts in other treatments. We conclude that diversified crop rotations enhance earthworm-mediated soil functions, improving aggregation, stubble decomposition, and organic matter stabilization. This fosters biologically active, structurally stable soils, boosting fertility and long-term agricultural sustainability in the Pampas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"391 ","pages":"Article 109751"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143943339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Benefits and tradeoffs of diversifying rice-based cropping systems: Impacts on soil health, productivity, and agroecosystem multifunctionality","authors":"Sara Rosenberg ,&nbsp;Amélie C.M. Gaudin ,&nbsp;Tommy L.D. Fenster ,&nbsp;Whitney Brim-DeForest ,&nbsp;Bruce Linquist ,&nbsp;Michelle M. Leinfelder-Miles ,&nbsp;Luis Espino ,&nbsp;Kassim Al-Khatib ,&nbsp;Cameron M. Pittelkow","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109691","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109691","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Diversified crop rotations have been shown to increase soil health and yields while providing broader ecosystem services (ES), such as increasing biodiversity, water regulation and greenhouse gas mitigation. Little research has investigated the benefits and tradeoffs of diversification in what traditionally have been continuous rice (<em>Oryza sativa L</em>.) systems. Likewise, impacts on agroecosystem multifunctionality, relating to the combined supply of Regulating, Provisioning, Supporting, and Conserving ES, remain uncertain. Our objective was to evaluate the integrated performance of diversified crop rotations compared to continuous rice on 46 fields in terms of soil health, rice grain-yield, weed abundance, and herbicide inputs in California. Results were then organized into different ES categories to assess potential tradeoffs and systems-level multifunctionality. Under conventional management, diversified rotations led to 13 % higher rice yields and lower weed abundance than continuous rice fields. Diversification reduced soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations, permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC), and autoclave citrate extractable (ACE) protein, but increased soil minor element availability (Mg, Mn, Fe, and Zn). While soil microbial biomass was similar among cropping systems, microbial communities under diversified rotations trended towards higher bacterial abundance associated with mineralization processes. When translated into ES categories, under conventional management, diversified rotations in flooded rice systems presented notable tradeoffs for several Regulating and Conserving ecosystem services (lower SOC concentrations and microbial energy source retention, lower nitrogen (N) retention, and reduced bird habitat), whereas diversified rotations under organic management presented more balanced Regulating and Supporting services (N retention, microbial energy source retention, mineralization and nutrient availability). As a result of ES tradeoffs within each system, no differences in agroecosystem multifunctionality were observed. Results suggest multiple benefits for diversified crop rotations in flooded rice systems, which may directly or indirectly support farmer goals such as nutrient availability, weed control and yields, but more research is needed to understand the identified tradeoffs at the landscape scale and maximize benefits across all ES categories.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"391 ","pages":"Article 109691"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143937001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Plant community‐dominating species can sustain population biomass by modifying and strengthening their own growth traits to deal with long‐term grazing","authors":"Yu-Wen Zhang ,&nbsp;Ze-Chen Peng ,&nbsp;Zhao-Feng Wang ,&nbsp;Sheng-Hua Chang ,&nbsp;Yu-Feng An ,&nbsp;Duo-Cai Li ,&nbsp;Fu-Jiang Hou ,&nbsp;Ji-Zhou Ren","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109744","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109744","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Unreasonable grazing activities cause grassland degradation, and the most visible sign of degradation is a decrease in productivity. The dominant species not only carry the majority of the community’s biomass, but they also use specific adaptive strategies to deal with grazing pressure. However, more research focuses on a single influence at the community level, ignoring dominant species’ trait responses to multiple environmental variables, as well as trait-based mechanisms of biomass formation. We based it on a grazing experimental platform on an alpine typical steppe. Through situ sampling with a time span of 20 years, we defined various distances from the pasture entrance as the various grazing intensity and chose the dominant species of <em>Agropyron cristatum</em> (<em>A. cristatum</em>) and <em>Stipa purpurea</em> (<em>S. purpurea</em>) to assess how long-term specific grazing management methods shape plant traits and balance their impact on biomass. The findings revealed that long-term moderate grazing increased the population density of <em>A. cristatum</em> and <em>S. purpurea</em>, whereas high-intensity grazing reduced <em>A. cristatum</em> biomass and flattened it while keeping <em>S. purpurea</em> biomass stable and more huge. Grazing in both seasonal pastures widens their crowns on a temporal and spatial (pasture) scale. High-intensity grazing encourages investment in <em>A. cristatum</em> height and density, while warm-season light grazing encourages investment in density in <em>S. purpurea</em>. Cold-season grazing has no effect on <em>S. purpurea</em>. The main factors influencing <em>A. cristatum</em> and <em>S. purpurea</em> traits are climate and soil nutrient availability. In cold-season pastures, <em>A. cristatum</em> and <em>S. purpurea</em> growth traits are strongly correlated with climate, whereas warm-season grazing weakens this correlation. Population density and climate both significantly increase biomass; warm-season grazing promotes <em>A. cristatum</em> density; and <em>S. purpurea</em> density is unaffected by any variables. Soil available nutrients and growth traits have a positive effect on the biomass of <em>A. cristatum</em> and <em>S. purpurea</em>. These findings imply that differences in growth and reproductive traits between plant populations play an important role in biomass maintenance and that different plants may adapt to grazing disturbances by improving specific traits. It is recommended to implement seasonal fence grazing based on the traits of plant community dominant species, matching animal feeding habits and plant growth phenology, in order to promote degraded grasslands restoration and grassland productivity sustainability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"391 ","pages":"Article 109744"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143927778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Natural capital metrics as predictors of farm-scale richness of birds and plants","authors":"Frederick W. Rainsford ,&nbsp;Grace J. Sutton ,&nbsp;Sue Ogilvy ,&nbsp;Daniel O’Brien ,&nbsp;Imogen Semmler ,&nbsp;Rachel Lawrence ,&nbsp;Alex Maisey ,&nbsp;Annette Cavanagh ,&nbsp;William F. Mitchell ,&nbsp;James Q. Radford","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109746","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109746","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>There is increasing pressure for improved traceability through agricultural supply chains and for farmers to report on their natural resource use, environmental performance, and biodiversity management. Metrics or indices of natural capital are often used in sustainability reporting, but to be effective, they need to represent the condition and extent of natural capital assets present on a farm, and their capacity to support biodiversity <em>at the farm scale</em> – the scale at which many management decisions are made. We propose seven metrics to represent natural capital at the farm scale: (i) Ecological Condition; (ii) Woody Vegetation Cover; (iii) Aggregation (of woody vegetation); (iv) Proximity (of production areas to woody vegetation); (v) Soil Condition; (vi) Riparian Buffer Condition; and (vii) Forage Condition. To assess whether these metrics can represent biodiversity values, we tested the relationship between the metrics and empirical data on plants and birds collected from 1155 sites located across 50 farms (total farm area = 135,890 ha) in south-eastern Australia. Farm-scale species richness of woodland-dependent birds was best explained by the proximity of production areas to woody vegetation and the overall cover of woody vegetation on the farm. Ecological Condition was the strongest predictor of farm-scale richness for all plant species, native plant species, native ground cover and perennial ground cover species. While we demonstrated strong relationships between some natural capital metrics and the species richness of native plants and birds, we recommend using a suite of metrics to represent a range of biodiversity components. The natural capital metrics presented here could potentially be used to report on natural capital value and condition and biodiversity value at the farm-scale in sustainability reporting and natural capital accounting.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"391 ","pages":"Article 109746"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143922550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Thresholds for the relationships between soil trace elements and ecosystem multifunctionality in degraded alpine meadows","authors":"Yuping Wu ,&nbsp;Mingjun Ding ,&nbsp;Hua Zhang ,&nbsp;Tiane Zou ,&nbsp;Peng Huang ,&nbsp;Huan Xu ,&nbsp;Yueju Zhang ,&nbsp;Huan Zeng ,&nbsp;Jiaxin Xiong ,&nbsp;Liyao Cheng ,&nbsp;Linshan Liu ,&nbsp;Yili Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109743","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109743","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Trace elements in soil are known to affect ecosystem functions, such as soil microbial structure, function, and grassland productivity. However, it is largely unknown whether soil trace elements cause abrupt or gradual changes in ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) in degraded alpine ecosystems and how they depend on environmental drivers. In this study, we investigated the vegetation and soil conditions in 172 sample squares in an alpine meadow area on the Tibetan Plateau, China. This study aimed to analyse the change characteristics in alpine meadow EMF and soil trace element contents at different degradation stages. Furthermore, we evaluated the soil trace element contributions to alpine meadow EMF. This study revealed that EMF decreased with increasing degradation, whereas total soil micronutrient content exhibited the opposite trend. A threshold was identified for regulating EMF using micronutrients during alpine meadow degradation. Soil micronutrients enhanced EMF during the initial stages of alpine meadow degradation. However, as degradation progressed, elevated soil micronutrient levels impeded EMF. In addition, climate can modulate soil trace elements through plant diversity and soil physicochemical properties, thereby influencing the role of soil trace elements in driving EMF. Soil physicochemical properties contributed the most to EMF, whereas soil trace elements, rather than plant diversity, significantly influenced EMF. Overall, soil trace elements in the degraded meadows had a significantly negative impact on EMF.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"391 ","pages":"Article 109743"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143922551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Water-saving irrigation can mitigate climate change but entails negative side effects on biodiversity in rice paddy fields","authors":"Sebastián Echeverría-Progulakis ,&nbsp;Maite Martínez-Eixarch ,&nbsp;Dani Boix ,&nbsp;Raul Llevat ,&nbsp;Lluís Jornet ,&nbsp;Joan Noguerol Arias ,&nbsp;Mar Catala-Forner ,&nbsp;Néstor Pérez-Méndez","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109719","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109719","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Tackling climate change while enhancing biodiversity without compromising production is a main goal in agricultural management. In rice farming, water-saving irrigation techniques alternative to permanent flooding have been globally adopted to face more severe and frequent droughts and have proven effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Yet potential trade-offs with other global concerning environmental issues such as biodiversity conservation are often overlooked. Here we used a field-scale experiment to compare the effects of water management strategies representing a water use gradient (continuous flooding as the lowest intensity water use management; mid-season drainage (MSD) as medium intensity; and alternate wetting and drying (AWD) as the highest intensity management) on i) greenhouse gas emissions, ii) the abundance and diversity of freshwater biological communities, and iii) crop yield. While a positive climate change mitigation effect was observed under water-saving practices (92.5 % and 67.3 % methane emission decreases for AWD and MSD, respectively, when compared to continuous flooding), these resulted negative for biodiversity conservation. Even though AWD decreased species richness only at the richness peak, a strong negative effect was observed on the abundance of aquatic organisms (decapods, heteropterans, odonates and amphibians). Grain yield decreased 12.9 % with AWD management as opposed to continuous flooding but did not vary under MSD. Even though wider adoption of water-saving strategies might help achieving climate mitigation goals while maintaining yields, negative effects on biodiversity should be addressed to preserve highly diverse communities of aquatic organisms and the broad range of ecosystem services they provide. These results point towards marked trade-offs among different agri-environmental issues, therefore, we advocate for more integrative solutions that account for potential side effects when designing alternative water management plans.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"391 ","pages":"Article 109719"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143918515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Grazing mediates soil nutrient stocks through changing the plant functional composition and plant biomass allocation in alpine grassland","authors":"Fengcai He ,&nbsp;Shikui Dong ,&nbsp;Chunhui Ma ,&nbsp;Xinghai Hao ,&nbsp;Hao Shen ,&nbsp;Juejie Yang ,&nbsp;Jiannan Xiao ,&nbsp;Yu Li ,&nbsp;Ran Zhang ,&nbsp;Hang Shi ,&nbsp;Ziying Wang ,&nbsp;Yuhao Zhang ,&nbsp;Hui Zuo","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109731","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109731","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Grazing can affect soil nutrient pools in a top-down process primarily through foraging, trampling and excreting of livestock. However, how grazing affects the relative contribution of plant biomass allocation to soil stoichiometry and nutrient storage in alpine grassland remains unclear. In this study, a 3-year serial grazing trail was conducted under 2 grazing regimes (continuous grazing and rotational grazing) and 3 grazing intensities (light grazing, medium grazing and heavy grazing) in an alpine steppe on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) to examine the effects of plant biomass allocation on soil stoichiometry and soil nutrient stock. The results showed that grazing decreased the aboveground biomass, whereas increased the belowground biomass and R:S. Grazing increased SOC stock and soil TP stock but did not affect the TN stock. Meanwhile, grazing caused an increasing in C: N and N: P. The shifts in belowground biomass and R: S regulates the changes of C: N: P stoichiometry. The plant functional composition regulated the changes of SOC stock, TN stock and TP stock. The relative contribution of R: S ratio to SOC stock and TN stock were increased with grazing intensities. We concluded that moderately rotational grazing is beneficial to better plant resource allocation and to regulate the soil nutrient stock in the alpine grassland ecosystem. These findings are crucial to identify the feasible grazing practices for the QTP’s alpine grasslands.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"391 ","pages":"Article 109731"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143922548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rice-duck farming enhances phosphorus use and grain yield via altering soil phosphorus fractions in the Yangtze River Delta of eastern China","authors":"Hui Gao ,&nbsp;Qingnan Chu ,&nbsp;Xiangyu Liu ,&nbsp;Liang Zheng ,&nbsp;Shuhan Xu ,&nbsp;Linkui Cao ,&nbsp;Detian Li ,&nbsp;Shuai Yin ,&nbsp;Ping He ,&nbsp;Chengrong Chen ,&nbsp;Zhimin Sha","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109741","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109741","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for crops, playing a critical role in plant growth and development. Adequate P availability in the soil is closely tied to crop productivity and soil health. Integrated rice-duck farming has been known for its sustainable and eco-friendly practices. However, the specific effects of this farming system on soil P fractions as well as the mechanisms by which it influences P use efficiency (PUE) by crops, require further investigation. Here, we conducted a two-years field experiment of integrated rice-ducking farming combined with four fertilizer treatments, including chemical fertilizer (RDF), a mixture of 70 % chemical and 30 % organic fertilizers (RDFO), organic fertilizer (RDO) and no fertilizer (RD). The control groups with absence of ducks (rice monoculture) were also set based on the consistent fertilizer treatments as RMF (chemical fertilizer), RMFO (a mixture of 70 % chemical and 30 % organic fertilizers), RMO (organic fertilizer) and RM (no fertilizer applied), respectively. The input of P, nitrogen and potassium fertilizer were consistent among treatments. The results demonstrate that the integrated rice-duck farming system significantly enhances soil labile phosphorus pools, thereby improving P use efficiency (PUE) and ultimately increasing rice yield, particularly under chemical and mixed fertilizer regimes. The presence of ducks was found to increase the labile P fractions in the soil, such as Resin-P and NaHCO₃-P, which are directly available to plants. This further lead to a substantial increase in PUE than rice monoculture. RDF significantly increased PUE by 41.3 % and 20.5 % in 2018 and 2019, respectively. RDFO significantly increased PUE by 10.9 % and 26.1 % in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Only under organic fertilizer treatment there was no significant difference for grain P uptake or PUE between the treatments with or without the presence of ducks. Furthermore, RD significantly improved the grain yields by 15.3 % and 8.83 % in 2018 and 2019, respectively. RDFO only significantly increased the grain yields by 9.6 % in 2019. These results demonstrate a sustainable approach to improve P fertilizer management in rice cultivation, potentially leading to higher crop productivity and better PUE. Further long-term studies, especially under organic fertilizer regimes, are necessary to explore the potential environmental impacts of this integrated farming system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"391 ","pages":"Article 109741"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143906259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}