Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
were more abundant in the scrubland soils, suggesting that these taxa were
better adapted to those soils. Compared to
Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria
and
Firmicutes
, many fewer OTUs belonging to these taxa were available
during probe design. Therefore, bacterial richness of these phyla in the
scrubland soil possibly was underestimated.
In summary, although investigated only at two sites that were assumed
to be representative for this type of ecosystem, we could show that the use
of scrublands for agriculture caused profound changes in the soil bacterial
community structure and physicochemical characteristics. Soil parameters
that differed between land uses were highly correlated with the commu-
nity composition of taxa responding to land use. Several, most likely oli-
gotrophic or anaerobic taxa were negatively affected by the change, in
contrast, populations with a potentially copiotrophic lifestyle profi ted and
were enhanced in the agricultural soils.
REFERENCES
1.
Munson SM, Belnap J, Okin GS (2011) Responses of wind erosion to climate-in-
duced vegetation changes on the Colorado Plateau. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108:
3854-3859. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1014947108
2.
Saygin SD, Basaran M, Ozcan AU, Dolarslan M, Timur OB, et al. (2011) Land
degradation assessment by geo-spatially modeling different soil erodibility equa-
tions in a semi-arid catchment. Environ Monit Assess 180: 201-215. doi: 10.1007/
s10661-010-1782-z
3.
Zhao WZ, Xiao HL, Liu ZM, Li J (2005) Soil degradation and restoration as af-
fected by land use change in the semiarid Bashang area, northern China. Catena 59:
173-186. doi: 10.1016/j.catena.2004.06.004
4.
Mahamane L, Mahamane S (2005) Biodiversity of ligneous species in semi-arid to
arid zones of southwestern Niger according to anthropogenic and natural factors.
Agr Ecosyst Environ 105: 267-271. doi: 10.1016/j.agee.2004.03.004
5.
Underwood EC, Viers JH, Klausmeyer KR, Cox RL, Shaw MR (2009) Threats
and biodiversity in the mediterranean biome. Divers Distrib 15: 188-197. doi:
10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00518.x
6.
Foley JA, DeFries R, Asner GP, Barford C, Bonan G, et al. (2005) Global conse-
quences of land use. Science 309: 570-574. doi: 10.1126/science.1111772
7.
Snyman HA (1998) Dynamics and sustainable utilization of rangeland ecosystems
in arid and semi-arid climates of southern Africa. J Arid Environ 39: 645-666. doi:
10.1006/jare.1998.0387
