Grazing promoted soil microbial functional genes for regulating C and N cycling in alpine meadow of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Abstract Microbial functional genes can reflect the nutrient cycle activities in soil, because they encode various enzymes involved in the material cycle. Therefore, the gene abundance variation can reveal the impact of interference on the material cycle of grassland. To study the cycle of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) between plant and soil in grassland under different grazing regimes, we investigated the soil microbial functional genes related to C, N, and P cycling by high-throughput quantitative PCR and 16S rRNA-based Illumina sequencing analysis under grazing exclusion (GE), rotational grazing (RG), and continuous grazing (CG) in alpine meadow of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, where climate is characterized by little rain and low temperature, and grassland is very sensitive to grazing. The results showed at the early grazing period, C fixtion (rbcL, korA, and frdA) and lignin degradation (abfA, xylA, exg, lig, exoPG, chiA, and glx) processes were slower under GE; CH4 metabolism (mcrA) was faster under CG; RG and CG improved the denitrification process (narG); RG slowed down organic-P mineralization (phoD). At the late grazing period, C fixation (accA and frdA) and degradation (mnp, apu, and amyA) processes were slower under GE; CH4 metabolism (pmoA and mxa) was faster under CG; RG and CG improved the ammonia-oxidizing (amoA2), nitrification (hao), and denitrification (nirS3 and nirK1) processes. The majority of the genes involved in C, N, and P cycling decreased, the C, N and P content in plant leaf decreased, while that of soil increased from early to late grazing period. No matter grazing or not, there were negative relationships between genes and soil nutrients, and positive relationships between genes and plant nutrients, implying a trade-off between plant nutrients and soil nutrients along the grazing time. The genes responsible for regulating C and N cycling were increased under grazing, implying that reasonable grazing is beneficial to the nutrients cycling of grassland.