Restoring soil function and resilience to degraded grasslands

恢复土壤功能和退化草原的恢复力

• 批准号: BB/P022987/1
• 负责人: Richard Bardgett
• 金额: $ 66.51万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FP022987%2F1
• 关键词: Restoring; soil; function; resilience; degraded

Soil degradation presents a major threat to food security and human wellbeing. As highlighted in a recent UN report, some 33% of the world's soils are moderately to highly degraded and as much as 40 billion tons of topsoil are lost annually as a result of soil erosion. Further, these problems are especially acute in developing countries, where soil erosion can cause dramatic declines in food production and result in poverty and hunger. Much focus on soil degradation is centered on arable lands, but it is also a major problem across the world's grasslands, which cover ~ 37% of the earth's land surface and are of major importance for food supply and livelihoods. One such hotspot of severe soil degradation is the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. This region is the largest area of grassland on the Eurasian continent, covering 25% of the land area in China. It is also the highest and largest plateau on Earth with an area of 2.5 million km2 and an average altitude of 4500 m. Some 8 million people live on the plateau, of which 48% live in poverty, largely due to widespread degradation of the grasslands on which rural people depend. Grasslands cover 65% of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau and play a major role in providing food and ecosystem services for rural people, largely through traditional yak, sheep and goat grazing, but also as a source of wild plants and fungi used in traditional Chinese medicine. However, livestock stocking rates on these grasslands have more than doubled in recent years, and overgrazing has contributed to massive grassland degradation and soil erosion, leading to increased rural poverty. These problems are also exacerbated by climate change, especially extreme events such as droughts, which are becoming more frequent, making soils more vulnerable to erosion. At present, estimates suggest that some 30-50% of grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau are degraded, and in many cases soils have completely lost their ability to support grassland production, with extreme consequences for local people; many traditional herders live in poverty in this region, which is the third poorest in China. Despite this, land managers and policy makers remain puzzled about how to restore degraded grasslands to their once healthy state, and how to make them better able to buffer the vagaries of climate change. Grassland degradation is caused by many factors, so restoring them is not straightforward. But key is the re-building of a fully functioning soil, on which plants that support livestock depend. We also argue that this recovery of soil health requires a holistic approach, involving the rebuilding of chemical, physical and biological properties of soil on which its functioning and resilience to climate change depends. Our goal is to restore fertility to degraded grassland soils of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau and enhance their ability to buffer future climate change. We build on our research in UK grasslands where we have shown soil health and resilience can be promoted through manipulating the diversity and make up of grassland plant communities. We want to test this approach for restoring the functioning and resilience of degraded grassland soils of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, thereby helping to increase food production and improve human welfare in this region. To achieve this, we not only plan to carry out novel research, testing our ideas developed in UK grasslands on the degraded soils of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau; but also we will build a multi-disciplinary team, including grassland scientists and stakeholders, with the capacity to develop robust solutions, based on sound ecological and socio-economic principles, for the restoration of soil functioning and resilience to degraded grassland in this and other low to middle income countries.

土壤退化对粮食安全和人类福祉构成了重大威胁。正如联合国最近的一份报告中所强调的那样，世界上约有33％的土壤中等降低至高度退化，由于土壤侵蚀，每年多达400亿吨的表土损失。此外，在发展中国家，这些问题尤其严重，在发展中国家，土壤侵蚀会导致粮食生产的急剧下降并导致贫困和饥饿。对土壤降解的重点非常关注耕地，但这也是世界上的主要问题，占地约37％，占地约37％，对于粮食供应​​和生计至关重要。重度土壤降解的热点之一是青海地天高原。该地区是欧亚大陆上草地最大的地区，占中国土地面积的25％。它也是地球上最高，最大的高原，面积为250万公里，平均高度为4500 m。大约有800万人生活在高原，其中48％的人生活在贫困中，这主要是由于农村人民所依赖的草原的广泛退化。草原占青海居民高原的65％，并在为农村人民提供食品和生态系统服务方面发挥了重要作用，这在很大程度上是通过传统的牛，绵羊和山羊放牧的，但也是中药中使用的野生植物和真菌的来源。但是，近年来，这些草原上的牲畜存储率增加了一倍以上，并且过度放牧导致草地降解和土壤侵蚀，从而导致农村贫困增加。气候变化也会加剧这些问题，尤其是诸如干旱之类的极端事件，这些事件变得越来越频繁，使土壤更容易受到侵蚀的影响。目前，据估计表明，青海藏高原上约30％至50％的草原被降解，在许多情况下，土壤完全失去了支持草地生产的能力，对当地人造成了极大的影响。许多传统牧民生活在该地区的贫困中，这是中国第三贫困。尽管如此，土地经理和政策制定者仍然对如何将退化的草原恢复到曾经健康的状态以及如何使他们更好地缓解气候变化的变化。草原降解是由许多因素引起的，因此恢复它们并不简单。但是关键是重建功能齐全的土壤，支持牲畜的植物取决于该土壤。我们还认为，这种土壤健康的恢复需要一种整体方法，涉及重建土壤的化学，物理和生物学特性，其功能和对气候变化的韧性依赖。我们的目标是恢复青海藏高原的草原土壤的生育能力，并增强其缓冲未来气候变化的能力。我们以在英国草原的研究为基础，在那里我们表明土壤健康，可以通过操纵草地植物群落的多样性和构成来促进韧性。我们希望测试这种方法，以恢复青海地天高原的草地土壤的功能和韧性，从而有助于增加粮食生产并改善该地区的人类福利。为了实现这一目标，我们不仅计划进行新颖的研究，还测试在英国草原上在Qinghai-tibetan高原的退化土壤上发展的思想；但是，我们还将建立一个跨学科团队，包括草地科学家和利益相关者，具有基于声音生态和社会经济原则的能力，以恢复土壤功能和弹性，以恢复该和其他低收入国家的土壤功能和韧性。

项目成果

Climatic resources mediate the shape and strength of grassland productivity-richness relationships from local to regional scales

• DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2022.107888
• 发表时间: 2022-02-08
• 期刊: AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
• 影响因子: 6.6
• 作者: Du, Jianqing;Wang, Yanfen;Wang, Shiping
• 通讯作者: Wang, Shiping

Combatting global grassland degradation

• DOI: 10.1038/s43017-021-00207-2
• 发表时间: 2021-09-07
• 期刊: NATURE REVIEWS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
• 影响因子: 42.1
• 作者: Bardgett, Richard D.;Bullock, James M.;Shi, Hongxiao
• 通讯作者: Shi, Hongxiao

Aridity-driven shift in biodiversity-soil multifunctionality relationships.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25641-0
• 发表时间: 2021-09-09
• 期刊: Nature communications
• 影响因子: 16.6
• 作者: Hu W;Ran J;Dong L;Du Q;Ji M;Yao S;Sun Y;Gong C;Hou Q;Gong H;Chen R;Lu J;Xie S;Wang Z;Huang H;Li X;Xiong J;Xia R;Wei M;Zhao D;Zhang Y;Li J;Yang H;Wang X;Deng Y;Sun Y;Li H;Zhang L;Chu Q;Li X;Aqeel M;Manan A;Akram MA;Liu X;Li R;Li F;Hou C;Liu J;He JS;An L;Bardgett RD;Schmid B;Deng J
• 通讯作者: Deng J

Grassland degradation-induced declines in soil fungal complexity reduce fungal community stability and ecosystem multifunctionality

• DOI: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108865
• 发表时间: 2022-10
• 期刊: Soil Biology and Biochemistry
• 影响因子: 9.7
• 作者: S. Luo;Kenny Png;N. Ostle;Hua-kun Zhou;Xiangyang Hou;Chunling Luo;J. Quinton;U. Schaffner;Christopher Sweeney;Dangjun Wang;Jihua Wu;Yuwei Wu;R. Bardgett

High ecosystem multifunctionality under moderate grazing is associated with high plant but low bacterial diversity in a semi-arid steppe grassland

• DOI: 10.1007/s11104-020-04430-6
• 发表时间: 2020-01
• 期刊: Plant and Soil
• 影响因子: 4.9
• 作者: Xinyu Wang;F. Li;Yanan Wang;Xin-min Liu;J. Cheng;Junzhen Zhang;T. Baoyin;R. Bardgett