Effects of grazing disturbance on biological crust soil

Overgrazing is a major driver of dryland degradation, however, so far, there is very limited understanding on whether and how this process affects biocrust-related microbial community, especially how the key groups respond to grazing disturbance. Therefore, in this study, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and high throughout sequencing technologies were used to investigate the bacterial community abundance and diversity in the Horqin Sandland (China) experienced different livestock grazing disturbances, in order to examine whether a shift in bacterial community (in particular the key biocrust components-cyanobacteria) was involved, and how this was linked to biocrust development and altered soil carbon and nitrogen storage.