Jiayao Zhou , Shiying Yu

Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, China
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Soil Biology, 2024, Vol. 15, No. 4   
Received: 03 Jul., 2024    Accepted: 05 Aug., 2024    Published: 22 Aug., 2024

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This study explores how the food chain maintains arid ecosystems, focusing on primary production, microbial interactions, and human effects in desert environments. Key discoveries include the differential contributions of chemosynthetic and photosynthetic bacteria to primary production across aridity gradients, with Actinobacteria playing a significant role in carbon fixation and energy acquisition in hyper-arid soils. Additionally, desert microbes associated with plants have been identified as potential bio-fertilizers and bio-control agents, enhancing plant growth and soil fertility in extreme conditions. The efficiency of food webs in desert streams was found to be influenced by environmental factors such as flash floods, light, and nutrient availability, with a notable decoupling of energy flow from primary producers to higher trophic levels. Furthermore, the removal of Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia has led to significant changes in ecological networks, highlighting the critical role of humans in maintaining ecosystem resilience. These findings underscore the complex interplay between microbial communities, environmental factors, and human activities in sustaining arid ecosystems. The study highlights the importance of microbial diversity and human involvement in promoting ecosystem productivity and resilience in desert environments.

Arid ecosystems; Primary production; Chemosynthetic bacteria; Photosynthetic bacteria; Desert microbes; Food web efficiency; Ecological networks; Human impact