Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment最新文献

{"title":"Cropland-scale interaction between maize evapotranspiration and groundwater in a well-irrigation district in Mu Us Sandy Land, Northwest China","authors":"Lizhu Hou ,&nbsp;Xu-Sheng Wang ,&nbsp;Yangxiao Zhou ,&nbsp;Guibing Zhu ,&nbsp;Yuesheng Gao ,&nbsp;Jiangyi Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109282","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109282","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The knowledge of the water fluxes and groundwater contributions to plant water use under fluctuating groundwater levels is crucial for the sustainable utilization of groundwater resources and the preservation of healthy ecosystems in semi-arid regions, such as the desert oasis croplands in the Mu Us Sandy Land (MUSL), Northwest China. A 3-year field trial was conducted in an oasis cropland within MUSL, involving five treatments with surface irrigation depths ranging from 5 mm to 60 mm per application and 5 to 11 irrigation applications per year. The major physical characteristics of the soils at the site were ascertained through laboratory measurements. Hydrogen and oxygen isotopes (deuterium and oxygen 18) in different water sources for the treatment with an irrigation depth of 45 mm per application (I₄₅) in the maize field were analyzed from in situ samples, and root water uptake (<em>RWU</em>) was further identified using the IsoSource model. A numerical model based on HYDRUS-1D for soil water fluxes was calibrated and validated using observation data to estimate the actual evapotranspiration (<em>ET</em>_a) and water productivity (<em>WP</em>) under various irrigation treatments. The isotope analysis indicated that maize water uptake in the I₄₅ treatment incorporated both groundwater and soil water during the growing stage. The large negative d-excess values in groundwater suggested a secondary evaporation effect of recharge water due to irrigation return flow. According to simulations with Hydrus-1D, groundwater use contributed 9 % to 37 % of the maize <em>ET</em>_a for the I₄₅ treatment between 2014 and 2016 when the depth to the water table varied between 0.81 m and 1.13 m. With an optimal irrigation depth of 37 mm per application, the maximum yield and <em>WP</em> can be achieved in oasis cropland. Even in dry years, with a 16 % probability of rainfall occurrence, maize production was not affected due to the capillary rise of groundwater and the pumping of groundwater for irrigation. These results offer potential scientific insights for agricultural water management of spring maize under irrigation in desert oasis farmlands of the MUSL and other regions with similar soil texture, climatic conditions, and cropping practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 109282"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142417903","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":"Divergent responses of soil aggregation and aggregate-carbon to fertilization regimes jointly explain soil organic carbon accrual in agroecosystems: A meta-analysis","authors":"Liwen Lin,&nbsp;Hao Chen,&nbsp;Yutao Peng,&nbsp;Junhui Yin,&nbsp;Junjie Guo,&nbsp;Chuntao He,&nbsp;Xiaochen Huang,&nbsp;Guorong Xin","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109314","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109314","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil aggregation can be substantially affected by fertilizers and contributes to soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration in agroecosystems. However, the mass and C distributions in different aggregates in responses to fertilization regimes are not often synchronous, which may largely affect soil C storage and stability. We conducted a meta-analysis of 2440 paired observations from 63 publications to assess the fertilization effects (i.e. inorganic, organic, and their combinations) on soil aggregation and aggregate-associated OC, as well as their linkages to the stimulated bulk soil C. Overall, fertilizer application significantly increased the mean weight diameter of soil aggregates by 27.8 %. The proportion of large (&gt; 2 mm) and small (0.25–2 mm) macroaggregates were significantly increased by 19.8 % and 17.2 %, and that of microaggregate (0.053–0.25 mm) and silt-clay fraction (&lt; 0.053 mm) were significantly decreased by 6.0 % and 18.4 %, respectively. In contrast, fertilization significantly increased C concentration in all aggregates. Organic fertilizer applications had remarkably greater effects than inorganic fertilizer applications on soil C concentration but the effects declined with decreasing aggregate size (from 36.5 % to 13.2 %), while that of inorganic application changed very little among aggregates (from 14.1 % to 10.0 %). The fertilizer effects on soil aggregation and aggregate-associated OC divergently responded to the gradients of major agronomic conditions (i.e. climate, soil properties, and duration). Organic fertilizer applications tended to have distinctly greater promotion effect than solely inorganic fertilizer applications with temperate climate, neutral-to-alkaline pH and more sand-like texture of soil. The importance of mineral- rather than larger size aggregate-associated OC in contributing to the bulk SOC pool tended to increase in the long term. The inorganic-organic combinations exhibited the most lasting effect on SOC accrual. In conclusion, the responses of bulk soil C to fertilizer applications were not always in accordance with those of soil aggregation, but can be well explained when jointly considering soil aggregate C. Our findings highlight the varying contributions of aggregates to the soil C pool in diverse and complicated agronomic situations, which are important to the agricultural C sink stability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 109314"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142359115","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 legacy mediates the diverse responses of grassland multidimensional stability to resource enrichment","authors":"Fengwei Xu ,&nbsp;Jianjun Li ,&nbsp;Liji Wu ,&nbsp;Biao Zhu ,&nbsp;Dima Chen ,&nbsp;Yongfei Bai","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109313","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109313","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Long-term grazing and resource enrichment are known to affect grassland ecosystem stability independently. However, the interactive effects of grazing legacy and resource enrichment on ecosystem multidimensional stability (e.g., temporal stability (TS): the degree of constancy of ecosystem components over time and temporal resistance (TR): the ability of ecosystem components to withstand the environmental change) in grassland ecosystems remain underexplored. In this study, we conducted a field manipulation experiment to assess the impact of 4-yr of resource addition (water and nitrogen) on multidimensional stability of multiple ecosystem components and underlying drivers in Inner Mongolia steppe with 7-yr different experimental grazing history. We found that the positive effects of water + nitrogen addition on multifunctional TS increased with increasing grazing intensity and an opposing trend was observed for multifunctional TR response. However, neither grazing legacy nor resource addition had an effect on community compositional stability. Resource addition enhanced the stability of species evenness, CWM (community weighted mean) species biomass and CWM-traits. Furthermore, water + nitrogen additions stimulated soil temperature TS but reduced its TR in heavy grazing intensity, with high grazing intensity bolstering soil moisture stability. Multifunctional stability was primarily governed by species asynchrony, while stability of species evenness fostered compositional stability. In particular, TS of functional diversity enhanced multifunctional TS in light grazing intensity, while TS of CWM-traits promoted multifunctional TS in heavy grazing intensity. Our study underscores the decoupling responses of functional stability and compositional stability to grazing legacy combined with resource enrichment. These findings highlight that the significance of concurrently considering multiple stability dimensions and components for a comprehensive understanding of grassland ecosystem stability under intensifying land use and global change scenarios.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 109313"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142326598","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":"Management and rhizosphere microbial associations modulate genetic-driven nitrogen fate","authors":"Mitra Ghotbi ,&nbsp;Marjan Ghotbi ,&nbsp;Yakov Kuzyakov ,&nbsp;William R. Horwath","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109308","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109308","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The interplay between plant genotype and nutrient management affects rhizodeposition, which in turn modulates the rhizosphere-microbiome and microbe-mediated functions. Substituting mineral nitrogen (N) with an N-fixing inoculant reduces reliance on N fertilizer while supplying N to crops. We evaluated the effectiveness of integrating maize near-isogenic lines (NIL 1 and NIL 2) with the biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) trait into management practices aimed at optimizing N provisioning. Management strategies included mineral N inputs (0 and 67 kg ha⁻¹) with and without an N-fixing inoculant. Our approach synthesized insights from amplicon sequencing data and evaluated nitrification rates, rhizosphere N content, maize N uptake, and N use efficiency (NUE). Genotypes and management structured prokaryotic communities, while the developmental stages of genotypes further refined both fungal and prokaryotic communities. The N-fixing inoculant increased N availability, triggering the BNI capacity without increasing the nitrification rate. This was reflected in lower NO₃⁻ and higher NH₄⁺ levels in BNI-NIL leachate compared to B73, suggesting improved N retention. NIL2, characterized by distinct fungal biomarkers, exhibited higher N content (72.3 kg ha⁻¹) and superior NUE compared to NIL1 (65.0 kg ha⁻¹). NIL2’s enhanced N uptake was associated with a robust microbial network, featuring <em>Archangium</em> (prokaryote) and <em>Trichoderma</em> (eukaryote) as keystone taxa. Notably, <em>Archangium</em> was linked to rhizosphere N dynamics Synergizing BNI with diazotroph inoculants reduces N fertilizer reliance and increases maize N supply for sustainable agroecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 109308"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142322560","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":"Warming, elevated CO2 and drought in combination amplify shifts in canopy greenness dynamics in managed grassland","authors":"Lumnesh Swaroop Kumar Joseph ,&nbsp;Edoardo Cremonese ,&nbsp;Mirco Migliavacca ,&nbsp;Andreas Schaumberger ,&nbsp;Michael Bahn","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109304","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109304","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Grasslands are strongly exposed to multiple global changes, including elevated CO₂, warming, and severe drought events. While the individual effects of these global change drivers on the greenness dynamics of grasslands have been comparatively well studied, their combined effects are so far poorly understood. In an <em>in situ</em> multifactor experiment we tested the individual and combined effects of warming (+3° C), elevated CO₂ atmospheric concentration (+300 ppm) and summer drought on the spring phenology and regrowth dynamics following defoliation during summer and late summer of a managed grassland typical for many parts of the Alps. We derived the dynamics of canopy greenness from the time series of green chromatic coordinates using digital repeat photography imagery (phenocams) spanning a period of three years. Among the individual drivers tested, we found that warming strongly advanced spring phenology and accelerated growth, elevated CO₂ accelerated growth, and summer drought had no immediate effects on shifts in canopy greenness but accelerated growth in the subsequent spring. The combination of the three global change drivers caused the most pronounced spring phenological and regrowth dynamics among all treatments, triggering an earlier reduction in canopy greenness during summer and advancing the onset of growth in the successive spring due to a drought legacy effect, which decreased the cumulative growing degree days required for initiating growth. Our findings suggest that in a future climate the combined effects of the three global change drivers will exacerbate shifts in canopy greenness dynamics in managed grassland, which cannot be predicted from the responses from the individual effects of these drivers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 109304"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142322562","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":"Optimizing phosphate application to improve soil quality and reduce phosphorus loss in rice-wheat rotation","authors":"Guanglei Chen ,&nbsp;Liang Xiao ,&nbsp;Ke Yue ,&nbsp;Yu Wang ,&nbsp;Shenqiang Wang ,&nbsp;Yiyong Zhu ,&nbsp;Lei Kai","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109310","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109310","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How to determine the optimal dosage of phosphorus (P) fertilizer input for an agricultural field is important to maintain soil quality and crop production while minimizing environmental impact. In this study, we set up a 5-year rice-wheat rotation with contrasting P fertilization treatments (0, 25, 50, 75, 100, and 150 kg P₂O₅ ha⁻¹, hereafter, P₀, P₂₅, P₅₀, P₇₅, P₁₀₀, and P₁₅₀, respectively) per season to explore the relationship between the amount of P input and crop yield, P use efficiency (PUE), balance of P accumulation and loss, ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF), and soil quality. Our results indicate that increased P amounts significantly boosted rice and wheat production of both straw and grain, but the tendency slowed down when the input was over 75 kg P₂O₅ ha⁻¹. The PUE declined with increased P input and soil P balance of 50 kg P₂O₅ ha⁻¹ for wheat and 100 kg P₂O₅ ha⁻¹ for rice. Runoff emerges as the main pathway for soil P loss and escalates with higher P application rates. We emphasize increasing ridge height and controlling water input for basal fertilizer to minimize P loss. The application of P fertilizer increased the soil P pool, with labile P (L-P) and moderately labile P (M-P) increasing by 13–114 % and 23–111 %, respectively, compared to P₀. The transformation of M-P to L-P in paddy soil is associated with an increased abundance of Actinobacteria. Low P applications (P₂₅ and P₅₀) increased EMF by 3.27 and 3.58 times, while high P applications (P₇₅, P₁₀₀, and P₁₅₀) decreased EMF. Furthermore, P application significantly improved the soil quality index (SQI) compared to P₀. The impact of abiotic factors on yield and P loss is more significant than that of biotic elements, with the SQI serving as a dependable indicator for predicting yield. Central to minimizing P loss while maximizing yield is the reduction of Resin-P content and the maintenance of NaOH-P_i levels, suggesting that organic materials may be a good alternative strategy. These findings provide valuable data and theoretical support for optimizing P application in rice-wheat cropping systems, promoting a mutually beneficial scenario for agricultural production and ecological protection.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 109310"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142322563","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 intensity by sheep affects spatial diversity in botanical composition of Inner Mongolian grassland","authors":"Xu Han ,&nbsp;Raúl Ochoa-Hueso ,&nbsp;Yong Ding ,&nbsp;Xiliang Li ,&nbsp;Ke Jin ,&nbsp;Wim H. van der Putten ,&nbsp;Paul C. Struik","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109311","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109311","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Overgrazing by sheep causes degradation of grasslands in the Inner Mongolian steppe, yet our understanding of its impact on grassland plant communities is limited by lack of observations at high spatial resolution. Employing a nested experimental design in a long-term grazing experiment provides insights into effects of increasing sheep grazing intensity on community composition, diversity, and spatial patterns in the grassland vegetation. Effects of observed changes in the plant community are discussed based on monthly weight gain of sheep during grazing. The design of the long-term experiment included four triplicated grazing intensities applied during an 8-year period. At the end of that period, we evaluated vegetation coverage, categorized plant species by functional groups, and analyzed the data using a mixed linear model. Moreover, spatial autocorrelation methods were employed to investigate spatial patterns, visualized via a kriging model. We found that the plant community composition differed among grazing treatments, with high grazing intensity showing higher plant species richness and stronger clustering of plants at our fine scale of observation. These fine-grained spatial scale observations are usually not recorded in larger spatial scale analyses of grassland responses to overgrazing. While the grazing intensities used in our study did not influence individual sheep weight gain, total sheep weight gain per hectare increased with an increase in grazing intensity. Our study shows that in a sheep grazing intensity experiment in Inner Mongolia grasslands total sheep weight gain may increase at the expense of fine-scale species composition and spatial dynamics of the grassland vegetation. These insights may be used for determining trade-offs of sheep meat production with original composition and structure of grassland plant communities. Effects on other ecosystem properties and functions, such as on belowground biodiversity, remain to be assessed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 109311"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142322561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of inhibitors and slit incorporation on NH3 and N2O emission processes after urea application","authors":"Hannah Götze ,&nbsp;Caroline Buchen-Tschiskale ,&nbsp;Lea Eder ,&nbsp;Andreas Pacholski","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109307","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109307","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The use of urea fertilizers in agriculture is associated with many negative environmental impacts and is a source of ammonia (NH₃) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions. Such losses from urea fertilizer can be avoided by different mitigation techniques. Three different mitigation principles, urease inhibitor (N-(2-Nitrophenyl) phosphoric triamide, 2-NPT) (UI) alone and urease inhibitor in combination with nitrification inhibitors (N-[3(5)-methyl-1 H-pyrazol-1-yl) methyl] acetamide, MPA) (NI) and closed slit incorporation of urea fertilizer into the soil, were compared on a sandy loam soil at a soil water level of 70 % water-holding capacity. An in vitro microcosm approach with open dynamic incubation chambers was used to monitor NH₃ emissions over two weeks with NH₃ sampling by washing bottles. N₂O emissions were studied over ten weeks in slow throughflow mesocosms with continuous gas chromatographic (GC) measurements. To get insights into N₂O production and consumption processes, gas samples were taken after six weeks and N₂O isotopocules were analyzed by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Slit injection showed the greatest effect on NH₃ emission reduction by 79.6 % (40.6 % by UI, and 46.7 % by UINI) compared to surface applied urea. Minor pollution swapping to N₂O was observed at the beginning of the trial due to incorporation but not in the cumulative emissions over the entire incubation time. The reduction effect of UINI on N₂O emissions decreased over time with no cumulative emission reduction at the end of experimentation. N₂O isotopocules confirmed the high contribution of nitrification to N₂O production. In contrast and bacterial denitrification, nitrifier denitrification and fungal denitrification were involved on a much lower level and N₂O reduction to N₂ was not pronounced. All NH₃ mitigation measurements where effective to decrease NH₃ emissions while their effects on N₂O emission varied over time. Factors as crop N uptake and rainfall would further modify the overall effect on N₂O emissions and need to be considered for final pollution swapping assessment. Further research on the impact of NI on non-target microbial communities is warranted to elucidate potential environmental consequences and long-term efficacy of inhibitor compounds.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 109307"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142318975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Are rice fields less diverse and more invaded by non-native species than less impacted habitats? A test with wetland microcrustaceans","authors":"Maria Bisquert-Ribes ,&nbsp;Emili García-Berthou ,&nbsp;María Ariadna Redón-Morte ,&nbsp;Juan Rueda ,&nbsp;Francesc Mesquita-Joanes ,&nbsp;Xavier Armengol","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109305","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109305","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Freshwater ecosystems are subject to multiple human stressors, which can make them more susceptible to invasions. Even protected areas established to safeguard freshwater wetlands can be vulnerable to invasions, particularly when they include disturbed environments such as rice fields, which function as colonization pathways for invasive aquatic organisms. In this study, we compared the microcrustacean communities across three habitat types (rice fields, marshes and limnocrenes) in two protected Mediterranean wetlands during summer and winter seasons, using PERMANOVA, dbRDA and indicator value analyses. We studied the species diversity (alpha and gamma), composition and frequency of microcrustaceans, focusing on invasive taxa. We found 92 microcrustacean species, 16 of which were considered invasive. Although we expected higher microcrustacean diversity in marshes and limnocrenes than in rice fields due to human impact, the latter stood out as more diverse than less disturbed habitats. Invasive species played a significant role in accounting for microcrustacean diversity, and they were present across all habitats, in similar proportions. Species composition remained relatively stable between winter sampling campaigns but varied in summer and among habitats. Although more invasive species were selected as indicators of rice fields, their presence in less disturbed environments challenged expectations. Despite the absence of seasonal and habitat differences in the proportion of invasive species found, our study underscored the potential of rice fields as invasion pathways for protected wetlands and the capacity of invasive species to colonize less impacted environments. Addressing microcrustacean invasions is crucial for wetland conservation and ecosystem function, even if their ecological impacts are not fully understood. Integrated management strategies should focus on prevention and early detection to safeguard native species persistence and the ecosystem integrity of protected wetlands.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 109305"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880924004237/pdfft?md5=931732ad27612c3e33137dac0a639d48&pid=1-s2.0-S0167880924004237-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142314595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Drought timing and degradation status determine the grassland sensitivity to simulated drought events","authors":"Shaoning Li ,&nbsp;Shaowei Lu ,&nbsp;Xijin Wang ,&nbsp;Ziting Chen ,&nbsp;Bin Li ,&nbsp;Na Zhao ,&nbsp;Xiaotian Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109312","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2024.109312","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The intensity and frequency of drought are constantly increasing, threatening the ecosystem functions of grasslands. Although drought can generally limit vegetation growth, the effect of drought timings and grassland degradation status remains unclear. We selected three grasslands with different levels of degradation (extremely, moderately and slightly degraded) in northern China and examined the effects of 30-day drought events during different timings (early, middle, and late growing seasons) on soil water content (SWC), vegetation coverages, and aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP). We found that by reducing SWC by approximately 22–75 %, drought events led to significant declines in seasonal vegetation coverage, but weaker effects on ANPP. Among different drought timings, vegetation coverages showed the minimum sensitivity to early-season droughts with positive legacy effects and the maximum sensitivity to mid-season droughts with negative legacy effects. Late season drought can lead to negative legacy effects on next spring, but positive legacy effects on next summer. Vegetation compositions in terms of the proportions of degradation indicator plants play an important role in regulating seasonal drought sensitivities in degraded grasslands. Our findings underscore that, to better understand the performance of grassland ecosystems during drought events, we must consider the impact of drought timing and grassland degradation status.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"378 ","pages":"Article 109312"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142318976","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}