DOI: 10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqzn0
title: Response of soil fungal communities and their co-occurrence patterns to grazing exclusion in different grassland types

description: Overgrazing and climate change are the main causes of grassland
 degradation, and grazing exclusion is one of the most common measures for
 restoring degraded grasslands worldwide. Soil fungi can respond
 rapidly to environmental stresses, but the response of different grassland
 types to grazing control has not been uniformly determined. Three
 grassland types (temperate desert, temperate steppe grassland, and
 mountain meadow) that were closed for grazing exclusion for nine years
 were used to study the effects of grazing exclusion on soil
 nutrients as well as fungal community structure in the three grassland
 types. The results showed that (1) in the 0–5 cm soil layer, grazing
 exclusion significantly affected the soil water content of the three
 grassland types (P&lt;0.05), and the pH, total phosphorous
 (TP) and nitrogen-to-phosphorous ratio (N/P) changed
 significantly in all three grassland types (P&lt;0.05). Significant
 changes in soil nutrients in the 5–10 cm soil layer after grazing
 exclusion occurred in the mountain meadow grasslands (P&lt;0.05), but
 not in the temperate desert and temperate steppe grasslands. (2) For the
 different grassland types, Archaeorhizomycetes was most abundant in
 the montane meadows, and Dothideomycetes was most abundant in the
 temperate desert grasslands and was significantly more abundant than in
 the remaining two grassland types (P&lt;0.05). Grazing exclusion let
 to insignificant changes in the dominant soil fungal phyla and
 in α diversity but significant changes in the
 β diversity of soil fungi (P&lt;0.05). (3) Grazing
 exclusion areas have higher mean clustering coefficients and modularity
 classes than grazing areas. In particular, the highest modularity class is
 found in temperate steppe grassland grazing exclusion areas. (4) We also
 found that pH is the main driving factor affecting soil fungal community
 structure, that plant coverage is a key environmental factor affecting
 soil community composition, and that grazing exclusion indirectly affects
 soil fungal communities by affecting soil nutrients. The above results
 suggest that grazing exclusion may regulate microbial ecological processes
 by changing the soil fungal β diversity in the three grassland
 types. Grazing exclusion is not conducive to the recovery of soil
 nutrients in areas with mountain meadow but improves the stability of soil
 fungi in temperate steppe grassland. Therefore, the type of degraded
 grassland should be considered when formulating suitable
 restoration programmes when grazing exclusion measures are implemented.
 The results of this study provide new insights into the response of soil
 fungal communities to grazing exclusion, providing a theoretical basis for
 the management of degraded grassland restoration.
description: # Response of soil fungal communities and their co-occurrence patterns to
 grazing exclusion in different grassland types
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqzn0](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqzn0) Contains cover data for Table 2.  Columns are described below: "Soil layer"=Soil samples from the soil layer(0_5=0-5 cm, 5_10=5-10 cm) "Grassland type"=Different grassland types where TD=temperate desert grassland, TS=temperate steppe grassland, MM=mountain meadow grassland "Enclosure treatment"=Different experimental treatments where GE=grazing exclusion, FG=Freely grazing "EC"=electric conductivity units: ms/m "BD"= bulk density  units: g/cm-3 "SM"=soil moisture units:% "SOC"= soil organic carbon units:g/kg "TN"=total nitrogen units:g/kg "TP"=total phosphorus units:g/kg "C:N" carbon:nitrogen "C:P"carbon:phosphorus "N:P"nitrogen:phosphorus Contains cover data for figure 2.  Columns are described below: "Soil layer"=Soil samples from the soil layer(0_5=0-5 cm, 5_10=5-10 cm) "Grassland type"=Different grassland types where TD=temperate desert grassland, TS=temperate steppe grassland, TM=mountain meadow grassland "Enclosure treatment"=Different experimental treatments where GE=grazing exclusion, FG=Freely grazing The rest of the horizontal coordinates are soil fungi class=Dothideomycetes, Archaeorhizomycetes, Sordariomycetes, Agaricomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Glomeromycetes, Leotiomycetes, Pezizomycetes, Orbiliomycetes, Tremellomycetes, Saccharomycetes, Rhizophlyctidomycetes, Ustilaginomycetes, Spizellomycetes, Exobasidiomycetes, Olpidiomycetes, Geoglossomycetes, Lecanoromycetes, Geminibasidiomycetes, Cladochytriomycetes, Other Contains cover data for figure 3.  Columns are described below: "Soil layer"=Soil samples from the soil layer(0_5=0-5 cm, 5_10=5-10 cm) "Grassland type"=Different grassland types where TD=temperate desert grassland, TS=temperate steppe grassland, TM=mountain meadow grassland "Enclosure treatment"=Different experimental treatments where GE=grazing exclusion, FG=Freely grazing The rest of the horizontal coordinates are soil α diversity=Chao 1, shannon, simpson Contains cover data for figure 4.  Columns are described below: "Soil layer"=Soil samples from the soil layer(0_5=0-5 cm, 5_10=5-10 cm) "Grassland type"=Different grassland types where TD=temperate desert grassland, TS=temperate steppe grassland, TM=mountain meadow grassland "Enclosure treatment"=Different experimental treatments where GE=grazing exclusion, FG=Freely grazing The rest of the horizontal coordinates are soil fungi otu  Contains cover data for figure 5.  Columns are described below: "Taxonomy" and The rest of the horizontal coordinates are soil fungi relative abundance at genus level Contains cover data for figure 6.  Columns are described below: "Soil layer"=Soil samples from the soil layer(0_5=0-5 cm, 5_10=5-10 cm) "Grassland type"=Different grassland types where TD=temperate desert grassland, TS=temperate steppe grassland, TM=mountain meadow grassland "Enclosure treatment"=Different experimental treatments where GE=grazing exclusion, FG=Freely grazing "EC"=electric conductivity units: ms/m "BD"= bulk density  units: g/cm-3 "SM"=soil moisture units:% "SOC"= soil organic carbon units:g/kg "TN"=total nitrogen units:g/kg "TP"=total phosphorus units:g/kg "C:N" carbon:nitrogen "C:P"carbon:phosphorus "N:P"nitrogen:phosphorus The rest of the horizontal coordinates are soil α diversity=Chao 1, shannon, simpson Contains cover data for figure 7.  Columns are described below: "Soil layer"=Soil samples from the soil layer(0_5=0-5 cm, 5_10=5-10 cm) "Grassland type"=Different grassland types where TD=temperate desert grassland, TS=temperate steppe grassland, TM=mountain meadow grassland "Enclosure treatment"=Different experimental treatments where GE=grazing exclusion, FG=Freely grazing "EC"=electric conductivity units: ms/m "BD"= bulk density  units: g/cm-3 "SM"=soil moisture units:% "SOC"= soil organic carbon units:g/kg "TN"=total nitrogen units:g/kg "TP"=total phosphorus units:g/kg "C:N" carbon:nitrogen "C:P"carbon:phosphorus "N:P"nitrogen:phosphorus The rest of the horizontal coordinates are soil fungal dominant class=Archaeorhizomycetes, Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Sordariomycetes, Agaricomycetes Contains cover data for figure 8.  Columns are described below: "Soil layer"=Soil samples from the soil layer(0_5=0-5 cm, 5_10=5-10 cm) "Grassland type"=Different grassland types where TD=temperate desert grassland, TS=temperate steppe grassland, TM=mountain meadow grassland "Enclosure treatment"=Different experimental treatments where GE=grazing exclusion, FG=Freely grazing "EC"=electric conductivity units: ms/m "BD"= bulk density  units: g/cm-3 "SM"=soil moisture units:% "SOC"= soil organic carbon units:g/kg "TN"=total nitrogen units:g/kg "TP"=total phosphorus units:g/kg "C:N" carbon:nitrogen "C:P"carbon:phosphorus "N:P"nitrogen:phosphorus "GE"=grazing exclusion "Complexity"=fungal network complexity "High"=plant height "Cover"=plant covreage "Density"=plant density "Biomass"=plant aboveground biomass “P”=plant patrick diversity “H”=plant shannon-wiener diversity "D"=plant simpson diversity “E”=plant pielou diversity The rest of the horizontal coordinates are soil α diversity=Chao 1, shannon, simpson