Despite the essential role of micronutrients in plant metabolic processes and carbon cycle, the mechanisms by which micronutrients regulate plant community traits remain poorly understood.  Here, we used a long-term experiment to explore the potential mechanisms of plant community micronutrients and traits along a precipitation gradient.  Our results showed that plants shifted toward lateral growth and asexual reproduction over time.  From 1985 to 2022, the plant community Fe content increased by 18.8% in the north but declined by 25.2% in the south of the typical steppe.  Furthermore, plant community growth and reproduction were sensitive to both micronutrient contents and uptake efficiencies in the north of the typical steppe.  While plant community Mn and Zn contents enhanced growth longitudinally, Zn and Fe uptake efficiencies hindered sexual reproduction.  Furthermore, soil moisture and GDP per capita were the key drivers of micronutrient variation in the north and south of the typical steppe, respectively.  Precipitation fluctuations primarily regulated community traits across all sites.  In the arid site, micronutrient-driven shifts in reproduction stabilized the soil carbon stock by balancing biomass allocation.  These findings can help us to better understand the coupling of plant micronutrients, traits, and soil carbon stocks, thereby providing the basis for a scientific grassland conservation strategy under global change scenarios.

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) has been widely acknowledged as an effective tool for mitigating grassland degradation and enhancing ecosystem services provision.  However, critical factors, such as herders’ willingness to accept (WTA) preferences and compensation expectations, are often overlooked, leading to insufficient effectiveness of PES initiatives.  This study focused on grassland ecological compensation policy (GECP), quantifying herders’ WTA compensation for grassland grazing bans.  Through face-to-face surveys and employing the contingent valuation method, we estimated households’ WTA for participating in a grassland conservation program to bolster ecosystem service provision.  Our findings indicated that herders required an average compensation of 237 CNY mu^–1 yr^–1 to engage in the grazing ban program.  Notably, herders’ environmental awareness positively influenced their willingness to participate, whereas larger family sizes were negatively correlated with WTA.  Additionally, herders in better health, with higher livestock incomes or categorized as semi-herders, tended to accept lower compensation levels.  These insights are crucial for improving the effectiveness of GECP and provide valuable reference points for similar analyses in economically disadvantaged and ecologically fragile regions.

Globally grassland ecosystems are facing unprecedented threats from continuous degradation and about 49% of grasslands are experiencing varying degrees of degradation. Resolving the imbalance between available forage and livestock demand is a major issue for grassland ecosystems. Transforming natural grasslands, which are on the brink of ecological collapse and have extremely high repair costs, into mowing grasslands can simultaneous address forage deficiency and also reduce the cost of long-distance transportation. Exploring the biomass yield and forage quality of multiple-mowing grasslands on the QTP is essential for calculating its construction scale. For this purpose, we conducted a grass-legumes cultivation experiment on the southeastern edge of the QTP and performed multiple mowing experiments. The results showed that compared to one-time harvesting during the growth period, multiple mowing significantly improved the biomass yield and nutritional quality of the grass, and gradually balanced towards quality as the mowing process progressed. Based on the experimental results, we used the current livestock loss rates in the QTP as a reference and further established different supplementary feeding modes from an energy supply perspective. Finally, we conclude that under the premise of no restriction on feeding, the artificial grassland needs to be increased to 2.22-9.38 times the current area. Under the restriction on feeding, the QTP needs to increase by 1.55-9.38 times, and the corresponding natural grassland area needs to be reduced by 3.96-16.75% and 2.77-16.75% respectively to meet the energy demand-supply. These results provide data support for grassland management planning in the QTP and inform the development of feasible strategies for improving the grass-livestock dynamics in the QTP.

Continuous cropping presents various challenges including land degradation, the proliferation of soilborne pathogens, diminished yields. However, it can also foster the development of positive plant–soil feedbacks. The related microbial mechanisms and the potential impact of aboveground diseases on its formation remain unclear. This study systematically assessed the growth, occurrence of disease, soil properties and complexity and stability of the rhizosphere microbial network of common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) across different continuous cropping years. In this study, although continuous cropping decreased crop yield and quality, it reduced disease prevalence. The establishment of disease suppression was linked to a decrease in the incidence of disease, reduction in the soil nitrogen, decrease in microbial diversity and asymmetric alterations in the complexity and stability of the microbial network. Key beneficial microorganisms recruited in rhizosphere, such as Bacillus, Sphingomonas and Arthrobacter, were identified as potential contributors to disease suppression. The microbial-mediated soil legacy of anthracnose-infected modulated the growth-defense trade-off of common vetch by influencing the allocation of N and activating the plant's induced systemic resistance. The study underscores the significance of microbial-driven suppression in modulating the beneficial microbiome and offers novel insights into sustainable strategies of disease management in agricultural systems.