Effects of clipping on diversity and above‐ground biomass associated with soil fertility on an alpine meadow in the eastern region of the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau

Han, Wei; Luo, Yiqi; Du, Guozhen

doi:10.1080/00288230709510304

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Indeed, soil nitrogen is the mineral nutrient that plants require in the greatest quantity and that most frequently limits growth in natural ecosystems (Chapin et al, 1987) because of its central role in the photosynthetic apparatus and its mobility in the soil system (Bowman et al, 1993). In the alpine meadow, the change of above-ground biomass depends on soil fertility (Han et al, 2007). Our finding also demonstrated that the soil nitrogen content was a major factor for distribution of AGB.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

“…Recently, the terrestrial biomass has been one of many hotspots in alpine environment issues. Most of the studies only focused on (1) relationship between plant species richness and biomass (Bhattarai et al, 2004;Thomas and Bowman, 1998;Namgail et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2008;Han et al, 2007;Grytnes, 2000), (2) aboveground and belowground biomass allocation from plant individual (Wang et al, 2010) to community level (Yang et al, 2009a) in Tibetan grasslands for verifying two important hypotheses in plant biomass allocation (Optimal partitioning and isometric allocation), or (3) the biomass spatial patterns (Wu et al, 2007;Luo et al, 2002), and the relationships between biomass and meteorological factors (Ma et al, 2010a;Yang et al, 2009b;Zhang et al, 2010), soil properties (Yang et al, 2009b;Lu et al, 2011;Gerdol et al, 2004), and topographical factors (Luo et al, 2004;Litaor et al, 2008;Fisk et al, 1998). There are many studies that have examined links between environmental factors and distribution of biomass (Li et al, 2011;Huang et al, 2011), but as far as we are concerned there are no attempt to screen the critical factors that affected the distribution of biomass.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The critical factors that affected the distribution of aboveground biomass in the alpine steppe and meadow, Tibetan Plateau

Sun¹,

Cheng²,

Li³

2012

Preprint

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Tibetan Plateau – the third pole of the world, with its extremly harsh and fragile ecological environment, is so sensitive to global change that it attracts many scientists' attention. Alpine grassland here is an important component of the global carbon cycle. Many studies have examined links between environmental factors and distribution of biomass, but little showed the critical environmental factors affecting the distribution of biomass. To document the general relationships between the habitat factors and aboveground biomass (AGB) in Tibetan Plateau, and to identify the critical factors for the distribution of AGB in the alpine steppe and meadow, the data of AGB and habitat factors from 110 field sites across the widely distributed alpine steppe and meadow of the plateau were compiled and analyzed with the classification and regression tree (CART) model, and the generalized additive model (GAM). The results showed that (1) the spatial pattern of AGB in alpine steppe was determined by six major environmental factors: soil organic carbon density of soil 0–30 cm depth (SOC1), longitude, mean annual precipitation (MAP), latitude, clay and soil moisture. As to the alpine meadow, the major factors were altitude, soil moisture, nitrogen, MAP and mean annual temperature (MAT). (2) As to the alpine steppe, increased SOC1, MAP and latitude were associated with increased AGB abundance, but increased longitude resulted in lower abundance of AGB. As to the alpine meadow, the distribution of AGB had strong negative relationships with altitude and soil moisture, but a positive correlation with soil nitrogen content across sites. The results suggested that the combined effects of meteorological factors, topographic factors, and soil factors were more significant for the spatial pattern of AGB in Tibetan Plateau. In addition, our work highlights the importance of further studies to seek effects of slope and aspect in alpine grassland

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The critical factors that affected the distribution of aboveground biomass in the alpine steppe and meadow, Tibetan Plateau

Sun¹,

Cheng²,

Li³

2012

Preprint

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“…Wang et al (2013) also found that clipping increased species diversity and decreased aboveground productivity. Thus, the effects of clipping on species diversity and biomass were not only related to the time, frequency and intensity of clipping but also related to the species types, soil nutrients and plant compensation (Belsky, 1993;Han et al, 2007).…”

Section: Warming and Clipping Effects On Plant Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 94%

Effects of warming and clipping on plant and soil properties of an alpine meadow in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China

Peng

You

et al. 2014

J. Arid Land

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Climate warming and livestock grazing are known to have great influences on alpine ecosystems like those of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) in China. However, it is lacking of studies on the effects of warming and grazing on plant and soil properties in these alpine ecosystems. In this study, we reported the related research from manipulative experiment in 2010-2012 in the QTP. The aim of this study was to investigate the individual and combined effects of warming and clipping on plant and soil properties in the alpine meadow ecosystem. Infrared radiators were used to simulate climate warming starting in July 2010, while clipping was performed once in October 2011 to simulate the local livestock grazing. The experiment was designed as a randomized block consisting of five replications and four treatments: control (CK), warming (W), clipping (C) and warming+clipping combination (WC). The plant and soil properties were investigated in the growing season of the alpine meadow in 2012. The results showed that W and WC treatments significantly decreased relative humidity at 20-cm height above ground as well as significantly increases air temperature at the same height, surface temperature, and soil temperature at the depth of 0-30 cm. However, the C treatment did not significantly decrease soil moisture and soil temperature at the depth of 0-60 cm. Relative to CK, vegetation height and species number increased significantly in W and WC treatment, respectively, while vegetation aboveground biomass decreased significantly in C treatment in the early growing season. However, vegetation cover, species diversity, belowground biomass and soil properties at the depth of 0-30 cm did not differ significantly in W, C and WC treatments. Soil moisture increased at the depth of 40-100 cm in W and WC treatments, while belowground biomass, soil activated carbon, organic carbon and total nitrogen increased in the 30-50 cm soil layer in W, C and WC treatments. Although the initial responses of plant and soil properties to experimental warming and clipping were slow and weak, the drought induced by the downward shift of soil moisture in the upper soil layers may induce plant belowground biomass to transfer to the deeper soil layers. This movement would modify the distributions of soil activated carbon, organic carbon and total nitrogen. However, long-term data collection is needed to further explain this interesting phenomenon. Citation: ManHou XU, Fei PENG, QuanGang YOU, Jian GUO, XiaFei TIAN, Min LIU, Xian XUE. 2014. Effects of warming and clipping on plant and soil properties of an alpine meadow in the

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“…It is a normal practice in the semi-arid regions of Inner Mongolia in northern China to clip grassland every year without applying any fertilizer (Baoyin et al, 2014). A growing body of empirical evidence suggests that grassland ecosystems are affected to different extents by different mowing regimes (Han et al, 2007;Herrero-Jáuregui et al, 2014), but the differences have not been studied for L. chinensis. The changes in the functional traits of L. chinensis as a dominant species are likely to indicate the changing stages of the grassland ecosystem processes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term effects of mowing on plasticity and allometry of Leymus chinensis in a temperate semi-arid grassland, China

Hou

Ren

et al. 2016

J. Arid Land

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Mowing is an important land management practice for natural semi-arid regions. A growing body of empirical evidence shows that different mowing regimes affect the functioning of grassland ecosystems. However, the responses of plant functional traits to long-term mowing and their allometric scaling under long-term mowing are poorly understood. For a better understanding of the effects of mowing on grassland ecosystems, we analyzed the allometric traits of leaves and stems of Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvel., a dominant grass species in eastern Eurasian temperate grassland, at different mowing intensities (no clipping, clipping once every two years, once a year and twice a year). Experiments were conducted on plots established over a decade ago in a typical steppe of Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia, China. Results showed that most of the functional traits of L. chinensis decreased with the increased mowing intensity. The responses of leaves and stems to long-term mowing were asymmetric, in which leaf traits were more stable than stem traits. Also significant allometric relationships were found among most of the plant functional traits under the four mowing treatments. Sensitive traits of L. chinensis (e.g. leaf length and stem length) were primary indicators associated with aboveground biomass decline under high mowing intensity. In conclusion, the allometric growth of different functional traits of L. chinensis varies with different long-term mowing practices, which is likely to be a strategy used by the plant to adapt to the mowing disturbances.

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Effects of clipping on diversity and above‐ground biomass associated with soil fertility on an alpine meadow in the eastern region of the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau

Cited by 10 publications

References 27 publications

The critical factors that affected the distribution of aboveground biomass in the alpine steppe and meadow, Tibetan Plateau

The critical factors that affected the distribution of aboveground biomass in the alpine steppe and meadow, Tibetan Plateau

Effects of warming and clipping on plant and soil properties of an alpine meadow in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China

Long-term effects of mowing on plasticity and allometry of Leymus chinensis in a temperate semi-arid grassland, China

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