Cover as a simple predictor of biomass for two shrubs in Tibet

Zhang, Lin; Cui, Guangshuai; Shen, Wei; Liu, Xinsheng

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.01.009

Cited by 28 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…In tundra, aboveground biomass and production are highly correlated (Webber, 1978). Furthermore, vegetation cover and aboveground biomass were correlated in different ecosystems (Grytnes, 2000;Zhang, Cui, Shen, & Liu, 2016). These correlations and our results for the lakebed suggest that primary productivity and species diversity are positively related, supporting previous findings, although not in the case of the ridge (Hooper et al, 2005;Loreau et al, 2001;Tilman, Wedin, & Knops, 1996).…”

Section: Community Composition-soil Variable Relationssupporting

confidence: 86%

Interactive effects between plant functional types and soil factors on tundra species diversity and community composition

Iturrate-García

O’Brien

Khitun³

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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Plant communities are coupled with abiotic factors, as species diversity and community composition both respond to and influence climate and soil characteristics. Interactions between vegetation and abiotic factors depend on plant functional types (PFT) as different growth forms will have differential responses to and effects on site characteristics. However, despite the importance of different PFT for community assembly and ecosystem functioning, research has mainly focused on vascular plants. Here, we established a set of observational plots in two contrasting habitats in northeastern Siberia in order to assess the relationship between species diversity and community composition with soil variables, as well as the relationship between vegetation cover and species diversity for two PFT (nonvascular and vascular). We found that nonvascular species diversity decreased with soil acidity and moisture and, to a lesser extent, with soil temperature and active layer thickness. In contrast, no such correlation was found for vascular species diversity. Differences in community composition were found mainly along soil acidity and moisture gradients. However, the proportion of variation in composition explained by the measured soil variables was much lower for nonvascular than for vascular species when considering the PFT separately. We also found different relationships between vegetation cover and species diversity according the PFT and habitat. In support of niche differentiation theory, species diversity and community composition were related to edaphic factors. The distinct relationships found for nonvascular and vascular species suggest the importance of considering multiple PFT when assessing species diversity and composition and their interaction with edaphic factors. Synthesis: Identifying vegetation responses to edaphic factors is a first step toward a better understanding of vegetation–soil feedbacks under climate change. Our results suggest that incorporating differential responses of PFT is important for predicting vegetation shifts, primary productivity, and in turn, ecosystem functioning in a changing climate.

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Section: Community Composition-soil Variable Relationssupporting

confidence: 86%

Interactive effects between plant functional types and soil factors on tundra species diversity and community composition

Iturrate-García

O’Brien

Khitun³

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Flombaum and Sala () directly employed plant cover to predict AGB for shrubs and grasses in arid ecosystems. Zhang, Cui, Shen, and Liu () found that cover was tightly correlated with the aboveground, belowground, and total biomass at community level, and concluded that using cover to estimate shrub biomass can be applied in both arid ecosystems and alpine or subalpine environment. The linear relationships between plant cover and AGB for the less densely covered and rather simply structured vegetation types might lie in environmental stress, such as water, nutrient, or species growth form (Axmanová et al., ; Röttgermann et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between aboveground biomass and plant cover at two spatial scales and their determinants in northern Tibetan grasslands

Jiang

Zhang

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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The relationships between cover and AGB for the dominant and widely distributed alpine grasslands on the northern Tibetan Plateau is still not fully examined. The objectives of this study are to answer the following question: (1) How does aboveground biomass (AGB) of alpine grassland relate to plant cover at different spatial scales? (2) What are the major biotic and abiotic factors influencing on AGB–cover relationship? A community survey (species, cover, height, and abundance) was conducted within 1 m × 1 m plots in 70 sites along a precipitation gradient of 50–600 m. Ordinary linear regression was employed to examine AGB–cover relationships of both community and species levels at regional scale of entire grassland and landscape scale of alpine meadow, alpine steppe, and desert steppe. Hierarchical partitioning was employed to estimate independent contributions of biotic and abiotic factors to AGB and cover at both scales. Partial correlation analyses were used to discriminate the effects of biotic and abiotic factors on AGB–cover relationships at two spatial scales. AGB and community cover both exponentially increased along the precipitation gradient. At community level, AGB was positively and linearly correlated with cover for all grasslands except for alpine meadow. AGB was also linearly correlated with cover of species level at both regional and landscape scales. Contributions of biotic and abiotic factors to the relationship between AGB and cover significantly depended on spatial scales. Cover of cushions, forbs, legumes and sedges, species richness, MAP, and soil bulk density were important factors that influenced the AGB–cover relationship at either regional or landscape scale. This study indicated generally positive and linear relationships between AGB and cover are at both regional and landscape scales. Spatial scale may affect ranges of cover and modify the contribution of cover to AGB. AGB–cover relationships were influenced mainly by species composition of different functional groups. Therefore, in deriving AGB patterns at different spatial scales, community composition should be considered to obtain acceptable accuracy.

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“…In addition, we also calculated the bulk density for each sample quadrat to explore the reasons of changing the most important variables in predicting the AGB. Similar to the definition by Zhang et al (2016), the bulk density in this study is the ratio of log 2 (AGB) to volume related indexes (either V CC or V LAI ).…”

Section: Data Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, for each sampling date, there were six established univariate linear regression models. However, only the variable that established the model with the maximum coefficient of determination (R 2 ) or the lowest mean squared error (MSE), was considered as the most important estimator (Zhang et al, 2016). It is worth to note that the selected most important estimator cannot guarantee that the corresponding univariate model is the optimal one (i.e., with the highest accuracy and robustness)…”

Section: Modeling Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, indirectly estimating the AGB by modeling the relationships between biomass and some of the biometrics that are relevant to plant canopy structure (Martin et al, 2005;Pottier and Jabot, 2017). These biometrics including canopy height (Martin et al, 2005;Schmer et al, 2010), canopy cover (Flombaum and Sala, 2007;Zhang et al, 2016), leaf area index (LAI) (Liira et al, 2002;Rutten et al, 2015), and some canopy volume related indices such as the product of height and cover (Redjadj et al, 2012;Penderis and Kirkman, 2014;Pottier and Jabot, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Estimating seasonal aboveground biomass of a riparian pioneer plant community: An exploratory analysis by canopy structural data

Wen

Zhang

et al. 2017

Ecological Indicators

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On behalf of my co-authors, we thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to revise the manuscript, and we appreciate the reviewer #3 very much for his/her kind comments and suggestions on our manuscript entitled "Estimating aboveground biomass seasonal dynamics of a riparian pioneer plant species: an exploratory analysis by canopy structural data" (Ms. Ref. No. ECOLIND-7907R2). We have revised the manuscript according to the reviewer's comments. The revised parts were marked in red. In our point-by-point response letter attached below, the reviewer's comments were marked dark blue. We guess the reviewer's most concern is that the places of our sampling sites may have impacts on the modeling we conducted and should be verified first. In other words, some of the collected sampling quadrats may not be independent. In the response letter, we tested his/her concern and found that the all the sampling quadrats were independent and the places of the sampling sites have no significant impacts on the modeling. Attached please find the revised version, which we would like to submit for your kind consideration. Looking forward to hearing from you.

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Cover as a simple predictor of biomass for two shrubs in Tibet

Cited by 28 publications

References 26 publications

Interactive effects between plant functional types and soil factors on tundra species diversity and community composition

Interactive effects between plant functional types and soil factors on tundra species diversity and community composition

Relationships between aboveground biomass and plant cover at two spatial scales and their determinants in northern Tibetan grasslands

Estimating seasonal aboveground biomass of a riparian pioneer plant community: An exploratory analysis by canopy structural data

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