Effects of Plateau Pika Disturbance on the Spatial Heterogeneity of Vegetation in Alpine Meadows

Li, Jie; Qi, Hao Hao; Duan, Yuan-Yuan; Zheng, Guo

doi:10.3389/fpls.2021.771058

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…There were no significant differences in grassland type, soil type, topography, microclimate, or vegetation composition between the two-paired disturbed and undisturbed plots to ensure the reliability of the results. Undisturbed plots are considered to be potentially suitable areas for pika ( Li et al., 2021 ). Based on the average area of pika’s home range ( Fan et al., 1999 ), the area of each plot was set as 35 ×35 m. All plots were situated in cold grasslands, where alpine meadows were fenced from mid-April to October to exclude large herbivores.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of plateau pika disturbance on plant-soil carbon and nitrogen in alpine meadows

Xu,

Wang,

Wang

et al. 2024

Front. Plant Sci.

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The presence of burrowing mammals can have extensive effects on plants and soils, creating bare soil patches in alpine meadows and potentially altering plant-soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). This study focuses on the plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) to examine the responses of plant-soil C and N to a small burrowing mammal from quadrat scale to plot scale. The density of active burrow entrances in disturbed plots was used as an indicator of the disturbance intensity of plateau pikas. The study found that the below-ground biomass (BGB) and its C and N, as well as soil C and N concentrations were significantly lower in bare soil areas than in vegetated areas and undisturbed plots. This shows that the quadrat scale limited the estimation of the C and N sequestration potential. Therefore, further research on the plot scale found that the disturbance by plateau pika significantly reduced plant biomass and BGB carbon stock. However, plateau pika did not affect soil C and N stocks or ecosystem C and N stocks. These findings suggest the bare soil patches formed by plateau pika caused plant and soil heterogeneity but had a trade-off effect on plant-soil C and N stocks at the plot scale. Nevertheless, moderate disturbance intensity increased the C and N sequestration potential in grassland ecosystems. These results provide a possible way to estimate how disturbance by small burrowing mammals affects C and N cycling in grassland ecosystems while accurately assessing the effects of small burrowing mammal densities on C and N in grassland ecosystems.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of plateau pika disturbance on plant-soil carbon and nitrogen in alpine meadows

Xu,

Wang,

Wang

et al. 2024

Front. Plant Sci.

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“…Within-meadow variation in vegetation composition can be considerable, primarily as a result of complex microtopography, herbivory, or both. Thus, meadows are often comprised of highly localized assemblages that sort along small-scale gradients in moisture, nutrients and grazing intensity (Li et al, 2021;Xiao et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The noise is the signal: spatio-temporal variability of production and productivity in high elevation meadows in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of North America

Klinger,

Stephenson,

Letchinger

et al. 2024

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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There are expectations that increasing temperatures will lead to significant changes in structure and function of montane meadows, including greater water stress on vegetation and lowered vegetation production and productivity. We evaluated spatio-temporal dynamics in production and productivity in meadows within the Sierra Nevada mountain range of North America by: (1) compiling Landsat satellite data for the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) across a 37-year period (1985–2021) for 8,095 meadows >2,500 m elevation; then, (2) used state-space models, changepoint analysis, geographically-weighted regression (GWR), and distance-decay analysis (DDA) to: (a) identify meadows with decreasing, increasing or no trends for NDVI; (b) detect meadows with abrupt changes (changepoints) in NDVI; and (c) evaluate variation along gradients of latitude, longitude, and elevation for eight indices of temporal dynamics in annual production (mean growing season NDVI; MGS) and productivity (rate of spring greenup; RSP). Meadows with no long-term change or evidence of increasing NDVI were 2.6x more frequent as those with decreasing NDVI (72% vs. 28%). Abrupt changes in NDVI were detected in 48% of the meadows; they occurred in every year of the study and with no indication that their frequency had changed over time. The intermixing of meadows with different temporal dynamics was a consistent pattern for monthly NDVI and, especially, the eight annual indices of MGS and RSP. The DDA showed temporal dynamics in pairs of meadow within a few 100 m of each other were often as different as those hundreds of kilometers apart. Our findings point strongly toward a great diversity of temporal dynamics in meadow production and productivity in the SNV. The heterogeneity in spatial patterns indicated that production and productivity of meadow vegetation is being driven by interplay among climatic, physiographic and biotic factors at basin and meadow scales. Thus, when evaluating spatio-temporal dynamics in condition for many high elevation meadow systems, what might often be considered “noise” may provide greater insight than a “signal” embedded within a large amount of variability.

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“…Plateau pika families of various sizes often live together within their home range ( Fan et al, 1999 ; Smith et al, 2019 ) and are distributed patchily in grasslands ( Pang et al, 2020b ). Open-vegetation habitats free of plateau pikas are considered potentially suitable areas ( Li et al, 2021 ), and the diffusion of plateau pikas through the landscape is a gradual process ( Pang et al, 2020b ). Disturbance by plateau pikas decreases ( Liu et al, 2013 ) or has no impact on the plant AGB ( Pang et al, 2020a ) in their home range compared with areas lacking plateau pikas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plateau pikas inhabit alpine meadows varying in dominant plants, topography, soil type, and climate on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau ( Guo et al, 2012 ; Smith et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2020 ). Therefore, data from a single site are insufficient for inferring how disturbance by plateau pikas, coupled with environmental factors, affects the ratio of BGB to AGB ( Li et al, 2021 ). Data from multiple sites with similar environmental conditions with and without pikas are needed to evaluate the general effect of pika disturbance on the allocation of AGB and BGB.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small Semi-Fossorial Herbivores Affect the Allocation of Above- and Below-Ground Plant Biomass in Alpine Meadows

2022

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Small semi-fossorial herbivores can affect plant aboveground biomass (AGB) in grasslands and possibly alter the allocation of AGB and belowground biomass (BGB). In this study, plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) was used to investigate such effects at three alpine meadow sites on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau, where pairs of disturbed vs. undisturbed plots were randomly selected and sampled. We also explored the relationships between soil properties and BGB/AGB across the plots in the presence and absence of plateau pikas, respectively. We found that BGB and BGB/AGB were 11.40 and 8.20% lower in the presence of plateau pikas than in their absence, respectively. We also found that the BGB/AGB was positively related to soil moisture and soil total nitrogen (STN) in the absence of plateau pikas. In contrast, BGB/AGB was positively related to STN, soil organic carbon (SOC), soil carbon/nitrogen (C/N), and soil total phosphorus in the presence of plateau pikas. These factors indicated plateau pika disturbance increased AGB allocation. The relationship between AGB and BGB of alpine meadow plants to soil variables was also different between sites with and without plateau pika disturbance. In conclusion, small semi-fossorial herbivore disturbance is likely to alter grassland carbon stock and should be well controlled for sustainable conservation and management of alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau.

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Effects of Plateau Pika Disturbance on the Spatial Heterogeneity of Vegetation in Alpine Meadows

Cited by 7 publications

References 49 publications

Consequences of plateau pika disturbance on plant-soil carbon and nitrogen in alpine meadows

Consequences of plateau pika disturbance on plant-soil carbon and nitrogen in alpine meadows

The noise is the signal: spatio-temporal variability of production and productivity in high elevation meadows in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of North America

Small Semi-Fossorial Herbivores Affect the Allocation of Above- and Below-Ground Plant Biomass in Alpine Meadows

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