Jiang Yueliang, Ye Chen, Delgado-Baquerizo Manuel, Zhou Guiyao, Gong Yu, Zhang Quanfa
POWERCHINA Chengdu Engineering Co., Ltd., Chengdu 610072, China.
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
Microorganisms. 2025 Feb 28;13(3):554. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms13030554.
Vegetation and microbial diversity play an essential role in ecosystem function. Active ecosystem restoration costs millions of dollars to increase biodiversity, yet when and how this restoration is effective when aiming at restoring multiple ecosystem functions (EMF) is still under debate. Here, we investigated the influence of a decade of restoration practices (i.e., active revegetation vs. natural rewilding) on the recovery of the ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) provided by a riparian ecosystem. The experiment was conducted within the region of China's Three Gorges Dam, and the area was subjected to a gradient of flooding disturbance. We found that active revegetation increased the plant diversity by 1357% and EMF by ~2.6 times at the extreme flooding zone (286 flooding days/year) of the riparian ecosystem, when compared with natural rewilding. Moreover, the positive relationship between plant diversity and EMF was weak, and abiotic factors (soil aggregate, pH, soil water content, and heavy metal content) were the dominant predictors for EMF, explaining 52% of the EMF variation. Revegetation impacted EMF both directly and indirectly via altering the soil properties. In addition, we also observed important trade-offs between plant biomass and soil functions (carbon storage and fertility). This study provides critical insights into whether and how a decade of active restoration is effective to recover the EMF supported by riparian ecosystems, and it highlights the importance of active revegetation in conservation and management programs for riparian ecosystems under future extreme flooding conditions.
植被和微生物多样性在生态系统功能中起着至关重要的作用。积极的生态系统恢复需要花费数百万美元来增加生物多样性，然而，当旨在恢复多种生态系统功能（EMF）时，这种恢复何时以及如何有效仍存在争议。在此，我们研究了十年恢复实践（即主动植被恢复与自然野化）对河岸生态系统提供的生态系统多功能性（EMF）恢复的影响。该实验在中国三峡大坝地区进行，该区域受到不同程度的洪水干扰。我们发现，与自然野化相比，在河岸生态系统的极端洪水区（每年约286个洪水日），主动植被恢复使植物多样性增加了13%至57%，使生态系统多功能性提高了约2.6倍。此外，植物多样性与生态系统多功能性之间的正相关关系较弱，非生物因素（土壤团聚体、pH值、土壤含水量和重金属含量）是生态系统多功能性的主要预测因子，解释了52%的生态系统多功能性变化。植被恢复通过改变土壤性质直接和间接地影响生态系统多功能性。此外，我们还观察到植物生物量与土壤功能（碳储存和肥力）之间存在重要的权衡。这项研究为十年的主动恢复是否以及如何有效地恢复河岸生态系统所支持的生态系统多功能性提供了关键见解，并强调了在未来极端洪水条件下，主动植被恢复在河岸生态系统保护和管理计划中的重要性。
