Soil microbial communities following bush removal in a Namibian savanna

Buyer, Jeffrey S.; Schmidt-Küntzel, Anne; Nghikembua, Matti; Maul, Jude E.; Marker, Laurie

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-101-2016

Articles | Volume 2, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-101-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-101-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 2, issue 1

Original research article

|

09 Mar 2016

Original research article |

| 09 Mar 2016

Soil microbial communities following bush removal in a Namibian savanna

Jeffrey S. Buyer, Anne Schmidt-Küntzel, Matti Nghikembua, Jude E. Maul, and Laurie Marker

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Final revised paper (published on 09 Mar 2016)
Preprint (discussion started on 18 Dec 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C687: 'Soil microbial communities following bush removal in a Namibian savanna', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Jan 2016
- AC C699: 'Reply to Referee #1', Jeffrey Buyer, 26 Jan 2016
RC C690: 'Reviewer comments...', Anonymous Referee #2, 18 Jan 2016
- AC C702: 'Reply to Referee #2', Jeffrey Buyer, 26 Jan 2016
RC C716: 'Comments to Authors', Anonymous Referee #3, 28 Jan 2016
- AC C729: 'Reply to referee #3', Jeffrey Buyer, 05 Feb 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after minor revisions (review by Editor) (11 Feb 2016) by Fuensanta García-Orenes

AR by Jeffrey Buyer on behalf of the Authors (19 Feb 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (23 Feb 2016) by Fuensanta García-Orenes

ED: Publish as is (04 Mar 2016) by Lily Pereg (deceased) (Executive editor)

AR by Jeffrey Buyer on behalf of the Authors (04 Mar 2016)

Short summary

Savannas represent most of the world’s livestock grazing land and are suffering worldwide from bush encroachment and desertification. We studied soil under bush and grass in a bush-encroached savanna in Namibia. With bush removal, there were significant changes in soil chemistry and microbial community structure, but these changes gradually diminished with time. Our results indicate that the ecosystem can substantially recover over a time period of approximately 10 years following bush removal.