Spring thawing can affect the soil carbon and nitrogen cycling processes and lead to changes in the emissions of greenhouse gases. The temporal variations and impact factors of soil GHGs fluxes were measured in Phragmites australis and Carex appendiculata with the static chamber from the end of March to the end of May in 2018 in riparian wetlands of Xilin River, which is typical inland river meandering through steppe region in Inner Mongolia, China. The results showed that soil CH4 and N2O emissions of the P. australis were significantly higher than those of the Carex appendiculata, whereas CO2 emissions were no significant difference. The responses of soil GHG fluxes to soil environmental factors in P. australis and Carex appendiculata differed. In the P. australis community, soil CO2 and CH4 emissions were influenced jointly by mainly the soil temperature and microbial biomass nitrogen, whereas soil N2O emission was mainly affected by the soil temperature. The dominant controlling factor for CO2 and N2O was soil temperature in the Carex appendiculata, whereas CH4 was mainly regulated by soil water content. The global warming potential of P. australis was significantly higher than that of Carex appendiculata. Those findings highlight the difference in soil greenhouse gas fluxes in different plant communities and the importance of CH4 and N2O emissions during the spring thaw, which contributes to predicting the riparian wetland soil greenhouse gases and their global warming potential under global climate changes.
The Yellow River Basin of Inner Mongolia has significant ecological advantages, and it is critical to research the landscape pattern of its watershed wetland ecosystem and the changes in its service value in order to protect the environment and develop the region in a high-quality manner. In this paper, we use the landscape index method, the equivalent factor method, and a field survey to investigate changes in wetland landscape patterns and the dynamics of wetland ecosystem service values in the Yellow River Basin of Inner Mongolia from 1990 to 2020, and then examine the impact of landscape pattern evolution on wetland ecosystem service values in the region. The study’s findings indicate that rivers, lakes, and herbaceous marshes are the most common types of wetland landscapes in Inner Mongolia’s Yellow River Basin. The landscape types in the research area are diverse, and landscape fragmentation is increasing. In the Yellow River Basin of Inner Mongolia, the overall value of wetland ecosystem benefits is negatively connected with Patch Density and the Shannon Diversity Index, and positively correlated with the Contagion Index.
The spatial distribution and heterogeneity of soil and vegetation, as the root of the maintenance of ecosystem services in the riparian zone, play a decisive role in the ecological functions of the riverscape. In this study, a field survey of wetland plant communities and soil sampling were conducted in both longitudinal and lateral dimensions from the perspective of the riverscape of the Ulgai River, a typical inland river on the Mongolian Plateau. The diversity of wetland plant communities, soil physicochemical properties, and the correlations between them were systematically analyzed. The results showed that a total of 87 species belonging to 65 genera and 24 families of plants were present, with Asteraceae, Poaceae, and Cyperaceae as the main families. The plant composition and species diversity in the riparian zone at different dimensions showed obvious spatial patterns of succession. Although the correlation coefficient and significance of the physicochemical properties of river length and river width in the study area were different, most correlations remained consistent, among which soil moisture, soil pH, and total carbon were correlated with many physicochemical factors. The soil ammonium and nitrate nitrogen along the river length direction and electrical conductivity and organic carbon content along the river width direction were the main limiting factors affecting the diversity and distribution of plant species in the riparian zone based on the redundancy analysis. This study provides a theoretical basis for the continuous improvement of the current soil quality and the restoration of the degraded wetland ecosystems of inland rivers in arid and semi-arid regions, as well as a new perspective for the study of riverscape ecology.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.