Variation in biomass and morphology of Artemisia fragrans Willd. under grazing in northwest mountainous rangelands of Iran

Motamedi, Javad; Karkaj, Esmaeil Sheidai; Alilou, Fatemeh

doi:10.1016/j.chnaes.2016.07.004

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Such stressful conditions (generally characterized by drought) often give rise to unique reproductive allocation strategies through long‐term adaptation and selection (Zhang et al, ). Apart from environmental stress, livestock may also play an important role in shaping plant reproductive allocation strategies in desert steppe ecosystems, for example, grazing affects on biomass and morphology variation (Motamedi, Sheidai Karkaj, & Alilou, ), plant diversity and grassland productivity (Zhang et al, ), plant community composition (Porensky, Derne, Augustine, & Milchunas, ). However, so far, the long‐term effect of livestock on plant reproductive strategies remains elusive due to the lack of experimental evidence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of enclosure on reproductive allocation of wheatgrass Agropyron mongolicum populations in desert steppes

Zhao

Shao

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Plants generally adopt different reproductive strategies to adapt to their environments and increase their fitness. Here, we studied the effects of enclosure cultivation on the reproductive allocation of a wheatgrass species Agropyron mongolicum in the Desert steppes of Northern China. The results showed that: (a) after enclosure cultivation, the height, clump width, coverage, and clump biomass of A. mongolicum significantly increased by 78.96% (p = .040), 63.50% (p = .013), 50.89% (p = .032), and 205.38% (p = .022), respectively, whereas density did not show a significant change (p = .330). (b) Enclosure cultivation significantly affected the biomass of A. mongolicum. Compared with cultivation outside the fence, root, leaf, and spike biomass of A. mongolicum inside the fence significantly increased by 183.52% (p = .020), 334.09% (p = .011), and 381.25% (p = .005), respectively. In addition, root biomass was the highest among the components (38.53 and 13.59 g inside and outside the fence, respectively) and spike biomass was the lowest (6.16 and 1.28 g inside and outside the fence, respectively). (c) Enclosure cultivation affected elemental nutrient allocation and the caloric values of various components of A. mongolicum, and the caloric values are positively correlated with carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus contents. Enclosure cultivation significantly reduced carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the roots, as well as nitrogen and phosphorus in the spikes, but significantly increased nitrogen in the spikes by 9.78%. The caloric values of A. mongolicum inside and outside the fence in decreasing order were as follows: spikes > leaves > stems > roots. Comparison of cultivation effects between inside and outside the fence showed that the caloric values of the spikes and roots significantly increased by 0.92% and 1.60%, respectively, whereas those of the leaves significantly decreased by 0.70%. Our results demonstrate that the reproductive allocation of elemental nutrients and caloric values in nonreproductive and reproductive organs are plastic to arid environments.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%