The arid sandy areas have great potential for producing solar power, and a large number of solar photovoltaic (PV) power (SPP) stations have been set‐up in these regions across the world. Construction of SPP at large scale certainly changes the land surface with consequences on the local ecosystem. However, few studies have focused on these impacts. This study explored the influence of SPP on vegetation by modifying microhabitats. The soil water content (SWC), evaporation, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), soil and air temperature (AT), vegetation coverage, biomass, and species richness were measured under different positions of the SPP and outside. The results showed that SWC in the station was much higher than that observed outside the SPP, and the evaporation in the SPP was lower than outside (P < .05). The PAR below the PV panel line zone is much lower than the interval (IT) zone. The surface coverage, biomass, and species richness were significantly higher in the SPP than outside the IT zone and outside the SPP (P < .05). The AT under the panel was 1.67 times lower than above during the plant growing season. The microhabitat index has a high correlation with biomass, coverage, and species richness. PV panels could impact microhabitat in arid sandy areas and accelerate vegetation recovery progress and quality. The SPP construction would not only supply clean energy but also bring unintended ecological benefits in the future.

Future climate may profoundly impact the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. However, we do not know well how the functioning of different types of grassland ecosystems is associated with variation in temperature and precipitation. Here, we used long-term field measurements to examine how climatic changes between the 1980s and the 2010s (i.e., growing season temperature, precipitation, habitat moisture index, solar radiation, and sunshine duration) have affected aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) for all major grassland types in northern China. We found that ANPP consistently declined over the 30-year period across all types of grassland, on average by about 6.1%. Warming, associated with increased solar radiation and, hence, soil temperature, was the primary factor driving the decrease of ANPP. We further show that ANPP was more sensitive to climate change in alpine and lowland grasslands than in temperate grasslands.Together, our findings indicate that climate warming consistently reduces plant productivity of different types of grassland ecosystems, and emphasize the importance of soil temperature in driving the decline in grassland productivity under climate change.

No abstract

Chickpea is known as a plant that is rich in protein, carbohydrates, and nutrition, and its seeds and sprouts have been processed into various health foods. In the present study, four isoflavones were purified from the seeds and sprouts of chickpea by high speed countercurrent chromatography (HSCCC) using two biphasic solvent systems composed of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (5:5:5:5, v/v) and ethyl acetate-water (1:1 v/v). The results indicated that 14.2 mg of formononetin, 15.7 mg of biochanin A, 9.1 mg of ononin, 11.3 mg of biochanin A-7-O-β-D-glucoside were obtained from 150 mg of sprout extracts with the purity of 92.26%, 95.86%, 95.32%, and 96.56%, respectively. Compared with the sprouts, separation of seed extracts yielded less amounts of biochanin A-7-O-β-D-glucoside and biochanin A with lower purity. The results indicate that four main isoflavones in chickpea, i.e., isoflavones, formononetin, biochanin A, ononin, and biochanin A-7-O-β-D-glucoside, are substantially increased by biosynthesis during the seed germination.