Plant biomass allocation and driving factors of grassland revegetation in a <scp>Qinghai‐Tibetan</scp> Plateau chronosequence

Gao, Xiaoxia; Dong, Shikui; Xu, Yudan; Fry, Ellen L.; Dong, Shikui; Li, Shuai; Shen, Hao; Xiao, Jianru; Wu, Shengnan; Yang, Mingyue; Zhang, Jing; Zhi, Yangliu; Liu, Shiliang; Shang, Zhanhuan; Yeomans, Jane C.

doi:10.1002/ldr.3819

Cited by 30 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Usually, environmental stress (e.g., intense herbivory and drought) could lead to an increase in the R/S ratio (McNaughton et al, 1998;López-Mársico et al, 2015;Wilson et al, 2018;Alon et al, 2019;Hao and He, 2019). The availability of nutrients and water (Wang et al, 2018) or a restoration process (Gao et al, 2021), however, could reduce the R/S ratio of the plant community. Therefore, the increase in the R/S ratio might indicate that the habitat of the plant community gets worse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land Degradation Changes the Role of Above- and Belowground Competition in Regulating Plant Biomass Allocation in an Alpine Meadow

et al. 2022

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The allocation pattern of plant biomass presents the strategy of the plant community to adopt environmental changes, while the driver of biomass allocation is still unclear in degraded alpine grassland ecosystems. To explore the issue, this study investigated the shoot-to-root (R/S) ratio, plant aboveground traits, and root competition of three functional groups (i.e., grasses, sedges, and forbs) at three degradation levels (i.e., no obvious degradation, ND; moderate degradation, MD; and severe degradation, SD) in an alpine meadow in the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The relationships among plant aboveground traits, root competition, and R/S ratio were tested using the structural equation model (SEM). The results showed that the shoot and root biomass tended to decrease, but the R/S ratio of the plant community did not change along the degradation gradient. Plant height, lateral spread, and leaf length of most plant functional groups reduced, while leaf width and leaf area of most plant functional groups did not change along the degradation gradients. The root competition ability (presented as the fraction of root biomass in total biomass) of sedges in MD was the lowest, while that of grasses was the highest. The effects of aboveground competition on the R/S ratio were non-linear because of the different roles of plant height, lateral spread, and leaf area in regulating the R/S ratio along the degradation gradient. In contrast, the effects of belowground competition on the R/S ratio were linear because belowground competition promoted the R/S ratio, and the strength of this effect reduced along the degradation gradient. These results indicate that plant competition might be a critical factor to maintain the high R/S ratio in degraded alpine meadows.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land Degradation Changes the Role of Above- and Belowground Competition in Regulating Plant Biomass Allocation in an Alpine Meadow

et al. 2022

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“…In plants, biomass allocation to belowground and aboveground parts at a given time affects subsequent capture of water, nutrients, and light, while biomass allocation to vegetative and reproductive parts affects seed yield and quality. Therefore, biomass allocation substantially affects plant performance such as growth, competitive ability, and reproduction along environmental gradients (Crosby et al, 2015(Crosby et al, , 2017Darby & Turner, 2008;Gao et al, 2020;Husakova et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2010). Theories concerning the patterns of biomass allocation are crucial in understanding plant ecology and evolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, studying the effects of nonresource factors of soil and competition on biomass allocation would provide a perspective to understanding and predicting performance of plants along an environmental gradient, and could expand the predictions of optimal and allometric hypotheses. But while numerous studies have focused on resources to examine the factors driving biomass allocation (Darby & Turner, 2008;Gao et al, 2020;Zhao et al, 2010), the effects of nonresource factors in soil and competition have been relatively ignored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomass allocation in response to salinity and competition in native and invasive species

et al. 2022

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Biomass allocation to different plant parts affects the subsequent capture rate of resources and reproduction. Thus, many studies have been conducted on the biomass allocation to learn growth, reproduction, and competitive ability of plants. However, few researchers have explored how biomass allocation responses to nonresource factor and interspecific competition over time. We experimentally investigated the effects of soil salinity and competition on root : shoot ratio (RS), reproductive effort (RE; seed biomass : total biomass ratio), the relationship between belowground and aboveground biomass, the relationship between reproductive and vegetative biomass, growth, and reproduction of invasive Spartina alterniflora and native Phragmites australis. The biomass of P. australis decreased with increasing salinity, whereas that of S. alterniflora did not significantly change. The reproduction of P. australis decreased with increasing salinity under competitive conditions, and that of S. alterniflora increased. Therefore, P. australis was less-tolerant, and S. alterniflora was more-tolerant. The RS of P. australis increased over time under competitive conditions and with increasing salinity, and that of S. alterniflora did not significantly change. The RE of P. australis decreased to zero with decreasing total biomass, and that of S. alterniflora did not significantly correlate with total biomass. Both species exhibited a linear relationship between belowground and aboveground biomass. The relationship between reproductive and vegetative biomass in P. australis was linear, and the reproductive biomass of S. alterniflora did not significantly correlate with the vegetative biomass. Competitive dominance shifted from P. australis to S. alterniflora with increasing salinity. The findings demonstrated that the plastic biomass allocation of less-tolerant species facilitates performance of less-tolerant species in favorable environments, while the fixed biomass allocation of more-tolerant species facilitates performance of more-tolerant species in stressful environments, suggesting that S. alterniflora invasion driven by competitive exclusion probably occur in high salinity zones, and reproductive ability of invasive species should be relatively stronger during exclusion. More broadly, linking level of environmental stresses with tolerance of plants is

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“…However, microbes may also complete with plants for limited resources to maintain their own growth (Hodge et al 2000;Zhu et al 2017). Considering the complex interactions between plants and microbes, determining how plant transfer C to soil and microbes gives better insights into plant adaptation mechanism and C turnover process under resource de cit conditions (Pausch and Kuzyakov 2018;Gao et al 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of drought and nutrient deficit on the allocation of recently fixed carbon in plant-soil-microbe system

Xia¹,

Zhang²,

Li³

et al. 2022

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Background and Aims Carbon (C) allocation plays important role in plant adaptation to water and nutrient stress. However, the effects of drought and nutrient deficit on the allocation of recently fixed C in plant-soil-microbe system remain largely unknown. Methods We studied the response of C allocation of Sophora moorcroftiana (an indigenous pioneer plant in Tibet) in plant-soil-microbe system to drought, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) deficit using a microcosm experiment. The 13CO2 continuous labeling was used to trace C transport through the plant-soil-microbe system. Results Drought significantly reduced C allocation to stem and root but increased allocation to soil. Deficit of N and P significantly increased C allocation to root under well-watered conditions, while P deficit significantly increased allocation to stem but decreased allocation to leaf under drought conditions. Carbon allocation to microbes was mainly affected by nutrient deficit, and 13C amounts in microbial biomass was decreased by N deficit and increased by P deficit. Stem 13C amount was positively related to net photosynthetic rate and leaf 13C amount, suggesting that plants preferentially allocate C to stem. Soil 13C amount decreased and 13C amount in microbial biomass first decreased and then increased with increasing plant 13C amount, indicating that high plant C supply did not drive high amounts of C transferred to soil and microbes. Conclusion We proved that drought and nutrient deficit interactively affected C allocation in plant-soil-microbe system, and revealed a U-shaped relationship between plant C supply and the amounts of C transferred to microbes.

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Plant biomass allocation and driving factors of grassland revegetation in a Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau chronosequence

Cited by 30 publications

References 46 publications

Land Degradation Changes the Role of Above- and Belowground Competition in Regulating Plant Biomass Allocation in an Alpine Meadow

Land Degradation Changes the Role of Above- and Belowground Competition in Regulating Plant Biomass Allocation in an Alpine Meadow

Biomass allocation in response to salinity and competition in native and invasive species

Effects of drought and nutrient deficit on the allocation of recently fixed carbon in plant-soil-microbe system

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