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重大威胁。正如联合国最近的一份报告所强调的，世界上约 33% 的土壤处于中度至高度退化状态，每年因水土流失而流失的表土多达 400 亿吨。此外，这些问题在发展中国家尤其严重，土壤侵蚀会导致粮食产量急剧下降，并导致贫困和饥饿。人们对土壤退化的关注主要集中在耕地上，但这也是全世界草地的一个主要问题，草地覆盖了地球陆地表面的约 37%，对粮食供应和生计至关重要。青藏高原就是土壤严重退化的热点地区之一。该地区是欧亚大陆面积最大的草原，占中国国土面积的25%。它也是地球上最高最大的高原，面积250万平方公里，平均海拔4500米。大约800万人生活在高原上，其中48%的人生活在贫困之中，这在很大程度上是由于农村人口赖以生存的草原普遍退化造成的。青藏高原覆盖 65% 的草原，在为农村人口提供食物和生态系统服务方面发挥着重要作用，主要通过传统的牦牛、绵羊和山羊放牧，同时也是中药野生植物和真菌的来源。然而，近年来，这些草原上的牲畜存栏量增加了一倍多，过度放牧导致草原大规模退化和水土流失，导致农村贫困加剧。气候变化，特别是干旱等极端事件也变得更加严重，这些事件变得越来越频繁，使土壤更容易受到侵蚀。目前，据估计，青藏高原约有30-50%的草地退化，很多情况下土壤完全丧失了支持草地生产的能力，给当地人民带来了极其严重的后果；该地区许多传统牧民生活贫困，是中国第三贫困地区。尽管如此，土地管理者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其能够更好地缓冲气候变化的能力感到困惑。草地退化是由多种因素造成的，恢复草地并不容易。但关键是重建功能齐全的土壤，牲畜赖以生存的植物所依赖的土壤。我们还认为，土壤健康的恢复需要采取整体方法，包括重建土壤的化学、物理和生物特性，而土壤的功能和对气候变化的适应力取决于土壤的化学、物理和生物特性。我们的目标是恢复青藏高原退化草原土壤的肥力，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，表明可以通过操纵草原植物群落的多样性和组成来促进土壤健康和恢复力。我们希望测试这种方法，以恢复青藏高原退化草原土壤的功能和恢复力，从而帮助增加该地区的粮食产量并改善人类福祉。为了实现这一目标，我们不仅计划开展新颖的研究，在青藏高原的退化土壤上测试我们在英国草原上开发的想法；我们还将建立一个包括草原科学家和利益相关者在内的多学科团队，有能力根据健全的生态和社会经济原则制定强有力的解决方案，以恢复该地区和其他地区退化草原的土壤功能和恢复能力。低收入到中等收入国家。

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