Establishing Artificial Grassland on Extremely Degraded Alpine Meadow Changes the Soil Fungal Community and Function in the Qilian Mountain Area

ABSTRACT The establishment of artificial grasslands is a recognized method for restoring severely degraded alpine meadows, yet its impact on soil fungi remains poorly understood. To investigate the impact of artificial grassland establishment on soil fungal communities, we selected a typical 4‐year‐old artificial grassland as the research subject, with non‐degraded and extremely degraded alpine meadows serving as controls. Soil fungal communities and functional groups were analyzed using Illumina sequencing of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) genes, and functional groups were predicted using the FUNGuild database. The results indicated that artificial grassland establishment had a significant impact on vegetation properties, while not affecting soil nutrient contents. Additionally, established artificial grassland significantly increased fungal diversity but did not alter the abundance of dominant phyla except Ascomycota. The ecological network analysis revealed that artificial grassland establishment (0.0910) markedly decreased fungal robustness compared to non‐degraded (0.2040) and extremely degraded (0.1790), suggesting unfavorable soil conditions for fungal interactions. Moreover, vegetation properties (Shannon and Richness diversity indices) were the primary factors influencing soil fungal functional groups, communities, and ecological networks. Our findings indicate that the artificial grassland establishment rapidly restores vegetation but does not support the restoration of fungal communities.