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Potential benefits and risks of solar photovoltaic power plants on arid and semi-arid ecosystems: an assessment of soil microbial and plant communities

Exponential increase in photovoltaic installations arouses concerns regarding the impacts of large-scale solar power plants on dryland ecosystems. While the effects of photovoltaic panels on soil moisture content and plant biomass in arid ecosystems have been recognized, little is known about their...

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Autores principales: Liu, Ziyu, Peng, Tong, Ma, Shaolan, Qi, Chang, Song, Yanfang, Zhang, Chuanji, Li, Kaile, Gao, Na, Pu, Meiyun, Wang, Xiaomin, Bi, Yurong, Na, Xiaofan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10427150/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37588884
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1190650
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author Liu, Ziyu
Peng, Tong
Ma, Shaolan
Qi, Chang
Song, Yanfang
Zhang, Chuanji
Li, Kaile
Gao, Na
Pu, Meiyun
Wang, Xiaomin
Bi, Yurong
Na, Xiaofan
author_facet Liu, Ziyu
Peng, Tong
Ma, Shaolan
Qi, Chang
Song, Yanfang
Zhang, Chuanji
Li, Kaile
Gao, Na
Pu, Meiyun
Wang, Xiaomin
Bi, Yurong
Na, Xiaofan
author_sort Liu, Ziyu
collection PubMed
description Exponential increase in photovoltaic installations arouses concerns regarding the impacts of large-scale solar power plants on dryland ecosystems. While the effects of photovoltaic panels on soil moisture content and plant biomass in arid ecosystems have been recognized, little is known about their influence on soil microbial communities. Here, we employed a combination of quantitative PCR, high-throughput sequencing, and soil property analysis to investigate the responses of soil microbial communities to solar panel installation. We also report on the responses of plant communities within the same solar farm. Our findings showed that soil microbial communities responded differently to the shading and precipitation-alternation effects of the photovoltaic panels in an arid ecosystem. By redirecting rainwater to the lower side, photovoltaic panels stimulated vegetation biomass and soil total organic carbon content in the middle and in front of the panels, positively contributing to carbon storage. The shade provided by the panels promoted the co-occurrence of soil microbes but inhibited the abundance of 16S rRNA gene in the soil. Increase in precipitation reduced 18S rRNA gene abundance, whereas decrease in precipitation led to decline in plant aboveground biomass, soil prokaryotic community alpha diversity, and dehydrogenase activity under the panels. These findings highlight the crucial role of precipitation in maintaining plant and soil microbial diversities in dryland ecosystems and are essential for estimating the potential risks of large-scale solar power plants on local and global climate change in the long term.
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spelling pubmed-104271502023-08-16 Potential benefits and risks of solar photovoltaic power plants on arid and semi-arid ecosystems: an assessment of soil microbial and plant communities Liu, Ziyu Peng, Tong Ma, Shaolan Qi, Chang Song, Yanfang Zhang, Chuanji Li, Kaile Gao, Na Pu, Meiyun Wang, Xiaomin Bi, Yurong Na, Xiaofan Front Microbiol Microbiology Exponential increase in photovoltaic installations arouses concerns regarding the impacts of large-scale solar power plants on dryland ecosystems. While the effects of photovoltaic panels on soil moisture content and plant biomass in arid ecosystems have been recognized, little is known about their influence on soil microbial communities. Here, we employed a combination of quantitative PCR, high-throughput sequencing, and soil property analysis to investigate the responses of soil microbial communities to solar panel installation. We also report on the responses of plant communities within the same solar farm. Our findings showed that soil microbial communities responded differently to the shading and precipitation-alternation effects of the photovoltaic panels in an arid ecosystem. By redirecting rainwater to the lower side, photovoltaic panels stimulated vegetation biomass and soil total organic carbon content in the middle and in front of the panels, positively contributing to carbon storage. The shade provided by the panels promoted the co-occurrence of soil microbes but inhibited the abundance of 16S rRNA gene in the soil. Increase in precipitation reduced 18S rRNA gene abundance, whereas decrease in precipitation led to decline in plant aboveground biomass, soil prokaryotic community alpha diversity, and dehydrogenase activity under the panels. These findings highlight the crucial role of precipitation in maintaining plant and soil microbial diversities in dryland ecosystems and are essential for estimating the potential risks of large-scale solar power plants on local and global climate change in the long term. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-08-01 /pmc/articles/PMC10427150/ /pubmed/37588884 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1190650 Text en Copyright © 2023 Liu, Peng, Ma, Qi, Song, Zhang, Li, Gao, Pu, Wang, Bi and Na. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Liu, Ziyu
Peng, Tong
Ma, Shaolan
Qi, Chang
Song, Yanfang
Zhang, Chuanji
Li, Kaile
Gao, Na
Pu, Meiyun
Wang, Xiaomin
Bi, Yurong
Na, Xiaofan
Potential benefits and risks of solar photovoltaic power plants on arid and semi-arid ecosystems: an assessment of soil microbial and plant communities
title Potential benefits and risks of solar photovoltaic power plants on arid and semi-arid ecosystems: an assessment of soil microbial and plant communities
title_full Potential benefits and risks of solar photovoltaic power plants on arid and semi-arid ecosystems: an assessment of soil microbial and plant communities
title_fullStr Potential benefits and risks of solar photovoltaic power plants on arid and semi-arid ecosystems: an assessment of soil microbial and plant communities
title_full_unstemmed Potential benefits and risks of solar photovoltaic power plants on arid and semi-arid ecosystems: an assessment of soil microbial and plant communities
title_short Potential benefits and risks of solar photovoltaic power plants on arid and semi-arid ecosystems: an assessment of soil microbial and plant communities
title_sort potential benefits and risks of solar photovoltaic power plants on arid and semi-arid ecosystems: an assessment of soil microbial and plant communities
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10427150/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37588884
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1190650
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