{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,14]],"date-time":"2026-08-14T04:30:25Z","timestamp":1786681825587,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786492800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Qinghai Provincial Key Research, Development and Transformation Program","award":["2026-HZ-804"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2026-HZ-804"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["32260284"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32260284"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["32260284"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32260284"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Biology"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Moss-dominated biological soil crusts are associated with carbon and nitrogen cycling in dryland and alpine sandy ecosystems, but functional differentiation among closely related moss species and their mixed assemblages remains unclear. We used shotgun metagenomic sequencing to compare below-crust soil associated with Didymodon constrictus (Mitt.) K. Saito (D. constrictus) crusts (mossC), ferrugineus (Schimp. ex Besch.) M.O. Hill (D. ferrugineus) crusts (mossF), and visually co-dominated mixed crusts (mossM) in the Gonghe Basin on the northeastern Qinghai\u2013Tibet Plateau. Fifteen spatially separated quadrats per category were pooled into three composite biological replicates (effective n = 3). KEGG, CAZy, and targeted carbon- and nitrogen-cycling annotations showed category-associated differences in relative gene representation. MossC had greater mean representation of glycoside hydrolases and several complex-carbon-processing functions, mossF had greater representation of nitrogen-assimilation and acetate-related functions, and mossM had greater representation of selected carbon-degradation, nitrogen-mineralization, and dissimilatory-nitrate-reduction functions. The full RDA model explained 58.4% of functional variation (adjusted R2 = 0.334; exact permutation p = 0.028340), with single-variable associations retained for total carbon and soil water content. Genus-level taxonomic dissimilarity correlated with KEGG, CAZy, carbon-cycling, and nitrogen-cycling dissimilarities after FDR correction. MossM showed both positive and negative descriptive deviations from the approximate unweighted midpoint of mossC and mossF, but no inferential test was applied to these deviations. The small number of composite replicates, visually estimated moss proportions, edaphic confounding, and absence of activity measurements limit causal and confirmatory interpretation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/biology15161372","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T07:57:26Z","timestamp":1786521446000},"page":"1372","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Microbial Functional Potentials Differ Among Monospecific and Mixed Moss Biocrusts in an Alpine Sandy Ecosystem"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Meiling","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Land Surface Processes and Ecological Conservation (Ministry of Education), College of Life Sciences, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810016, China"},{"name":"Academy of Plateau Science and Sustainability, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810016, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhihui","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Land Surface Processes and Ecological Conservation (Ministry of Education), College of Life Sciences, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810016, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruiqing","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Land Surface Processes and Ecological Conservation (Ministry of Education), College of Life Sciences, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810016, China"},{"name":"Academy of Plateau Science and Sustainability, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810016, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6539-0041","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Huichun","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Land Surface Processes and Ecological Conservation (Ministry of Education), College of Life Sciences, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810016, China"},{"name":"Qilian Mountain Southern Slope Forest Ecosystem Research Station, Haidong 810700, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2866-0898","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kunyuan","family":"Wanghe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810016, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1768","DOI":"10.1111\/brv.12862","article-title":"What is a biocrust? 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