Yali Yin

Abstract Elymus breviaristatus is an important alpine forage, there is limited information regarding its potential use as silage and how fertilizer treatments affect the ensiling process in this forage crop. Here, we investigated how organic fertilizer (M), nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizer (NPK), and Trichoderma harzianum fertilizer (B) affect Elymus breviaristatus silage quality (30 days and 60 days ensiling) via microbiome and metabolome analyses.

1 Introduction Grassland ecosystems cover approximately 40% of the Earth's terrestrial surface and store about 30% of the world's terrestrial organic carbon (Bardgett et al. 2021; Deng et al. 2017), representing a critical reservoir for maintaining the global carbon balance. As significant carbon sinks, grasslands possess considerable potential for atmospheric CO2 sequestration through coupled plant photosynthesis and soil carbon storage processes.

1 Introduction Water scarcity and water crises are common challenges globally (Ridoutt & Pfister, 2010). The agricultural sector accounts for over 70% of the world's accessible water resources (Folberth et al., 2020; W. Ma et al., 2021), making it the largest global water user.