Plant And Soil Microbial Communities Regulate Soil Respiration In Response To Precipitation And Land Use In An Inner Mongolian Grassland

Purpose: Changes in precipitation amount and land use are expected to greatly impact soil respiration (Rs) of grassland ecosystems. However, little is known about whether they can interactively impact Rs and how plant and soil microbial communities regulate the response of Rs. Methods: Here, we investigated the impacts of altered precipitation amount (–50%, ambient and +50%) and land-use regime (fencing, mowing and grazing) on Rs with a field experiment in the Inner Mongolian grassland.Results: We found that altered precipitation amount impacted Rs and its components across the 3-year study period, while land-use regime alone or its interaction with precipitation amount impacted them in certain years. In addition, changed soil microclimate, especially soil moisture, under altered precipitation amount and land-use regime can impact the components of Rs either directly or indirectly via influencing plant and soil microbial communities.Conclusions: Integrating changing precipitation amount and land-use regime within experiment can produce more accurate insights into grassland Rs, and chronically shifted plant and soil microbial communities under these changes may result in distinct long-term impacts on Rs.