Soil microbial communities, key players of many crucial ecosystem functions, are susceptible to environmental disturbances, which might cause the loss of microbial diversity and functions. However, few ecological concepts and practices have been developed for rescuing stressed soil microbial communities. Here, we manipulated an experiment with or without arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation and at three levels (one, three and six species) of plant diversity to disentangle how the AMF and vegetation rescue soil nitrogen (N) -cycling microbial loop from simulated degraded soil ecosystem. Our results showed that AMF inoculation improved the restoration of soil N-cycling microbial communities. This improved restoration was related to the role of AMF in enhancing interactions within the N-cycling microbial loop. Furthermore, increased plant diversity strengthened the role of AMF in rescuing N-cycling microbial communities. Our findings provide novel insights into the roles of AMF and plant diversity in facilitating the rescue of microbial communities in degraded terrestrial ecosystems.

中文翻译：

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丛枝菌根真菌和植物多样性推动氮循环微生物群落的恢复

土壤微生物群落是许多关键生态系统功能的关键参与者，容易受到环境干扰，这可能会导致微生物多样性和功能的丧失。然而，很少有生态概念和实践被开发用于拯救受压的土壤微生物群落。在这里，我们在有或没有接种丛枝菌根真菌 (AMF) 和三个水平（一种、三种和六种）植物多样性的情况下进行了实验，以解开 AMF 和植被如何从模拟中拯救土壤氮 (N) 循环微生物回路的问题。退化的土壤生态系统。我们的结果表明，AMF 接种改善了土壤 N 循环微生物群落的恢复。这种改进的恢复与 AMF 在增强 N 循环微生物回路内的相互作用方面的作用有关。此外，植物多样性的增加加强了 AMF 在拯救 N 循环微生物群落中的作用。我们的研究结果为 AMF 和植物多样性在促进拯救退化的陆地生态系统中微生物群落中的作用提供了新的见解。