2026-03-01 SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY 2026 214(卷), null(期), (null页)
Nutrient cycling is a soil function that may be impacted by global change-induced droughts and alterations to grazing pressure. While belowground responses to drought are increasingly studied, the combined effects of altered rainfall and grazing on soil nutrients and microbial processes remain poorly understood. We tested how a two-year rainfall reduction interacted with a grazing intensity gradient during drought and two years of recovery to influence soil nutrient pools and microbial processes at two northern mixed-grass prairie sites. Rainfall reductions decreased soil available P and micronutrients between 10 and 50 %, but increased soil NO3- up to 4-fold during drought and into recovery years. In contrast, bacterial and fungal community compositions and extracellular enzyme activities were relatively resistant to rainfall reduction and grazing intensity treatments. Together, these results highlight the sensitivity of soil nutrient pools to drought, contrasted with the relative stability of belowground microbial processes in semi-arid rangelands in the face of drought and grazing management strategies.