Soil erosion‐induced decline in aggregate stability and soil organic carbon reduces aggregate‐associated microbial diversity and multifunctionality of agricultural slope in the Mollisol region

作者：Qingsong Yang, Jue Peng, Shimin Ni, Chenyang Zhang, Junguang Wang, Chongfa Cai · 发表于：Land Degradation and Development · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1002/ldr.5163 · 被引用次数：24 · 研究领域：Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Soil erosion and sediment transport、Biocrusts and Microbial Ecology

Abstract Soil erosion has become a serious ecological problem hindering the agricultural and economic development in Northeast China. Soil aggregates are basic units that regulate soil fertility and microbial activity. However, there have been few reports on the role of soil erosion in regulating the microbial diversity, multiple ecosystem services, and functions (multifunctionality) of soil aggregates. In this study, we investigated the effects of soil erosion on microbial diversity and the activities of various extracellular enzymes associated with soil aggregates by using Mollisol soil in Northeastern China at different positions of a slope, and how soil erosion affects soil multifunctionality indexes obtained by normalized calculation of soil enzyme activities. The results showed that soil erosion could reduce the physicochemical properties, soil enzyme activity, and microbial diversity of the aggregates, resulting in accumulation of aggregate nutrients and increase in microbial diversity and enzyme activity in the sedimentation area. Compared with smaller soil aggregates, larger soil aggregates had higher nutrient content, enzyme activity, and microbial diversity. However, with the intensification of soil erosion, the differences in microbial diversity and soil enzyme activities among different sizes of aggregates were reduced. Soil erosion also significantly reduced soil multifunctionality ( p < 0.001). The multifunctionality of 2000–250 μm, 250–53 μm, and <53 μm ...