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Responses of plant community coverage to simulated warming and nitrogen addition in a desert steppe in Northern China
Author(s) -
Wang Zhen,
Li Yuanheng,
Hao Xiying,
Zhao Mengli,
Han Guodong
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ecological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1440-1703
pISSN - 0912-3814
DOI - 10.1007/s11284-015-1265-3
Subject(s) - perennial plant , forb , steppe , global warming , environmental science , plant community , grassland , growing season , agronomy , shrub , ecology , climate change , geography , biology , species richness
Grassland communities occupy about 25 % of global land area and global warming could alter grassland plant community coverage. A field study was conducted to investigate the impact of soil warming (surface soil temperature increased by 1.3 °C) and nitrogen addition (100 kg N ha −1 year −1 ) on a desert steppe community in Inner Mongolia, China, from 2006 to 2011. Although there were strong intra‐ and inter‐annual variations, in general, warming had little effect on coverage of the four major species (two cool season C 3 species: Convolvulus ammannii and Stipa breviflora , and two warm season C 4 species: Cleistogenes songorica and Kochia prostrata ) over six growing seasons. The C 3 /C 4 coverage ratio consistently decreased with warming, with the decrease being statistically significant for one‐third of sampling dates. Warming caused a reduction (from 27.6 to 25.1 %) in peak season total plant community coverage. N addition did not affect the four main species, four functional groups (perennial grass, perennial forb, shrub and annual‐biennial) or the total plant community over the 6 years, except when precipitation was high (231 mm in 2008). The small reduction in plant community coverage demonstrated the resilience of desert steppe to warming. There could be a shift of C 3 to C 4 species because of warming, as indicated by the decrease in C 3 /C 4 ratio, but confirmation of this trend requires further study.