Dataset Information

Human activity accelerating the rapid desertification of the Mu Us Sandy Lands, North China.

ABSTRACT: Over the past several thousand years, arid and semiarid China has experienced a series of asynchronous desertification events in its semiarid sandy and desert regions, but the precise identification of the driving forces of such events has remained elusive. In this paper we identify two rapid desertification events (RDEs) at ~4.6?±?0.2?ka BP and ~3.3?±?0.2?ka BP from the JJ Profile, located in the eastern Mu Us Sandy Lands. These RDEs appear to have occurred immediately following periods marked by persistently frequent and intense fires. We argue that such fire patterns, directly linked to an uncontrolled human use of vegetation as fuel, played a key role in accelerating RDEs by ensuring that the land surface was degraded beyond the threshold required for rapid desertification. This would suggest that the future use of a massive and sustained ecological program of vegetation rehabilitation should reduce the risk of destructive fire.

SUBMITTER: Miao Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4785332 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Human activity accelerating the rapid desertification of the Mu Us Sandy Lands, North China.

Miao Yunfa Y Jin Heling H Cui Jianxin J

Scientific reports 20160310

Over the past several thousand years, arid and semiarid China has experienced a series of asynchronous desertification events in its semiarid sandy and desert regions, but the precise identification of the driving forces of such events has remained elusive. In this paper we identify two rapid desertification events (RDEs) at ~4.6 ± 0.2 ka BP and ~3.3 ± 0.2 ka BP from the JJ Profile, located in the eastern Mu Us Sandy Lands. These RDEs appear to have occurred immediately following periods marked ...[more]

PMID: 26961705

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Project description:Soft rock is a new material that could be used for the improvement of Mu Us Sandy Land, China. It can be utilized for wind prevention and sand fixation, both of which are of great importance to ecological restoration aims and cultivated land replenishment in desert areas. Four treatments with different compound ratios of soft rock and sand-0:1 (CK), 1:5 (P1), 1:2 (P2), and 1:1 (P3)-were studied. Fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR) and high-throughput sequencing were used to analyze the structure and diversity of the bacterial community in the compound soil and its relationship with physical and chemical parameters in the soil. The results showed that in comparison to CK treatment, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and NH4 +-N increased significantly in the P1 treatment; available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), and NO3 --N increased significantly in the P3 treatment. The bacterial gene copy number with P3 treatment was highest, showing a significant increase of 182.05% compared with the CK treatment. The three bacterial groups with the highest relative abundance at the phylum level were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Chloroflexi, accounting for more than 70% of the total population. The bacterial α diversity showed the same trend, the diversity and abundance indices of the P1 and P3 treatments were the highest, and the β diversity showed that the community structure of the two groups in these treatments were similar. norank_f__Roseiflexaceae and Gaiella (belonging to Actinobacteria) significantly differed with differing compound ratios in each treatment. NO3 --N, NH4 +-N and SOC were the main factors affecting bacterial community structure, and had a significant positive correlation with Gaiella abundance. These species are known to play an important role in stabilizing the soil structure of sandy land. Overall, 1:5 and 1:1 compound soil mixtures were beneficial towards the microbial community of sandy land, which plays an important role in biological sand fixation. This study provides an important theoretical basis for the supplementation of arable land area and the improvement of sandy land productivity, and has a good promotion prospect.

Project description:Background: Responses to hypoxia have been investigated in many species; however, comparative study between conspecific geographical populations in different altitude regions is rare, especially for invertebrates . The migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, is widely distributed both on high-altitude Tibetan Plateau (TP) and on low-altitude North China Plain (NP). TP locusts have inhabited Tibetan Plateau since Quaternary glaciations events and thus probably have evolved superior capacity to deal with hypoxia. Results: Here we compared the hypoxic responses of TP and NP locusts from morphological, behavioral and physiological perspectives. We found that TP locusts were more tolerant of extreme hypoxia than NP locusts, with a lower proportion exhibiting stupor, a faster recovery time, and higher respiration rates. We compared the transcriptional profiles of field TP and NP locusts and found that their differences were possibly attributed to a combination of multiple factors, e.g. oxygen, UV radiation, temperature and nutrition. To evaluate why TP locusts respond to extreme hypoxia differently from NP locusts, we subjected them to extreme hypoxia and compared their transcriptional responses. We found that the aerobic metabolism was more active in TP locusts than in NP locusts. RNAi disruption of PDHE1b, an entry gene from glycolysis to TCA cycle, increased the ratio of stupor in Tibetan locusts and decreased the ATP content of Tibetan locusts in hypoxia, confirming the significant importance of this metabolic branch for TP locusts to conquer hypoxia. Conclusions: Here we show that TP locusts are better tolerant of hypoxia than NP locusts and the better capacity to modulate primary metabolism in TP locusts contributes to their superior tolerance of hypoxia compared to NP locusts. FIELD POPULATION: TP locusts vs. NP locusts;direct comparison on 6 separate microarrays; each microarray compares one biological replicate; each biological replicate contains 10 individuals. LAB POPULATION: hypoxia-treated TP locusts vs TP locusts in normoxia; hypoxia-treated NP locusts vs NP locusts in normoxia; direct comparison on 6 separate microarrays; each microarray compares one biological replicate; each biological replicate contains 10 individuals.

Dataset Information

Human activity accelerating the rapid desertification of the Mu Us Sandy Lands, North China.

Publications

Human activity accelerating the rapid desertification of the Mu Us Sandy Lands, North China.

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