Grassland productivity and diversity changes in responses to N and P addition depend primarily on tall clonal and annual species in semiarid Loess Plateau

Chen, Zhifei; Xiong, Peifeng; Zhou, Junjie; Yang, Qing; Zhi, Wang; Xu, Bingcheng

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2020.105727

Cited by 27 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This is because annuals and biennials could best take advantage of higher nutrient availability and growth rapidly, which was facilitated by their functional traits, including abundant seed production, acquisitive resource use strategy and tall stature (Suding et al 2005;Wang et al 2017). As a consequence, strong light limitation induced by tall annuals and biennials suppressed other functional groups, which characterized with uncompetitive functional traits (conservative resource use strategy and short stature) (Chen et al 2020;DeMalach et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Short species are susceptible to be suppressed by tall species because of light limitation after N and P addition (Collins et al 2012;DeMalach et al 2017). Clonal species perform high competitiveness for light and water than non-clonal species because of resource sharing via vegetative growth (Chen et al 2020;Dickson, Mittelbach, Reynolds, and Gross, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Perennial species progressively become dominant species in 6-15 years after abandonment, leading to a high diversity and stability. As succession extends to 15-40 years, the stable communities mainly comprise perennial Poaceae, Asteraceae and Fabaceae (Chen et al 2020;Zhang, 2005;Zhang and Dong, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Grasslands production and ecosystem services are widely limited by low soil nutrient availability in this region (Zhang and Dong, 2010). Extraneous fertilization could e ciently improve grassland productivity and functions (Chen et al 2020). However, reconciliations of productivity improvement and stability conservation among various grasslands are community-speci c and rate-dependent when using N and P fertilization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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N and P Addition Reduce Semiarid Grassland Stability via Increasing the Dominance of Less-Stable Functional Groups

Chen¹,

Xiong²,

Zhou³

et al. 2021

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Aims Extraneous fertilization could efficiently improve grassland productivity and promote grassland restoration. Increasing fertilization may profoundly affect community stability, whereas the underlying compensatory dynamics among species and functional groups in regulating grassland stability remain unclear.Methods Three different grasslands, annuals and biennials (AB) community, perennial grass (PG) community and perennial forb (PF) community, on semiarid Loess Plateau were selected. We designed a 3-year split-plot experiment (main-plot: 0, 25, 50, and 100 kgN ha-1 yr-1; subplot: 0, 20, 40 and 80 kgP2O5 ha-1 yr-1) to explore how N and P addition affects community stability and its relationship with species richness, species asynchrony (SA) and functional group stability. Results Temporal stability differed largely between functional groups under N and P addition, perennial forbs or grasses had higher stability than perennial legumes or annuals and biennials. Decreased stability of PG and PF communities was primarily due to increased dominance of perennial grasses or forbs and reduced SA under N addition alone, while it attributed to increased dominance of perennial legumes after P addition alone. 50 and 100 kgN ha-1 yr-1 combined with P addition notably increased dominance of annuals and biennials at the expense of perennial species, but decreased stability of annuals and biennials, which caused declines in stability of the three communities.Conclusions Nutrient-induced shifts of functional groups, particularly increased dominance of less-stable functional groups, is the main driver reducing perennial grassland stability independent of diversity. Whereas N and P addition decreased annual grassland stability via additive effect of increased dominance of annuals and biennials and diversity decline. Targeted N and P combined addition was essential to maintain stability for different grasslands by regulating functional groups on semiarid Loess Plateau.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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N and P Addition Reduce Semiarid Grassland Stability via Increasing the Dominance of Less-Stable Functional Groups

Chen¹,

Xiong²,

Zhou³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…Grassland has now become the dominant vegetation type (43% of land area) in the region, and the changes in grassland biomass production and species composition with restoration year and growth season would greatly affect rainfall availability and land surface ecohydrological processes (Gang et al, 2018; Ochoa‐Sánchez et al, 2018). For instance, from early (1–7 years) to late succession stage (15–40 years), grassland dominant species may convert from annual and biennial forbs to perennial species, which had more tolerance to drought and low soil nutrient (Chen et al, 2020). Clarifying the temporal changes of grassland storage capacity and its internal relationships with community characteristics has important implications for evaluating the ecohydrological effects of grassland restoration and selecting reasonable restoration strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aboveground biomass production and dominant species type determined canopy storage capacity of abandoned grassland communities on semiarid Loess Plateau

et al. 2020

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Quantifying canopy storage capacity and its temporal variation is necessary for evaluating the ecohydrological effects of grassland restoration. In this study, four grassland communities after abandonment of 2, 7, 15 and 30 years on the semiarid Loess Plateau were selected, and canopy storage capacities, canopy structures and species compositions were examined in the growth period (May to September). Canopy, living plant, standing litter and floor litter storage capacities ranged from 0.11–0.56, 0.030–0.51, 0.0070–0.079 and 0.013–0.21 mm, respectively, and all exhibited an increasing trend with restoration year. Canopy storage capacity, vegetation coverage and aboveground biomass reached the maximum in August. Standing and floor litter storage capacities had the highest correlations with their biomass weights. Species diversity reached the maximum in 15 years abandoned grassland, with no significant monthly change. Annual forb, annual grass, perennial forb and perennial forb/grass were the typical dominant species type of 2, 7, 15 and 30 years abandoned grasslands, respectively. Perennial forbs (Artemisia gmelinii, Lespedeza davurica) had higher water storage than those of annual forb (Artemisia capillaris) and grasses (Setaria viridis, Roegneria kamoji). Path analysis revealed that fresh aboveground biomass and dominant species type mainly affected canopy storage capacity. No significant correlations were found between storage capacity and species diversity indexes. These results highlighted the importance of vegetation aboveground biomass and species functional group for evaluating grassland hydrological function and adopting suitable restoration strategy.

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Effects of nitrogen addition and watering on soil seed bank germination in a semiarid grassland on the Loess Plateau of China

et al. 2022

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Elevated atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has caused many adverse effects on ecosystem services. However, the impacts of N deposition and its interaction with soil moisture on soil seed bank remain largely unknown in semiarid grasslands. Here, we quantified the effects of two soil water regimes (HW: watered to field capacity every day; LW: watered to field capacity every 2 days) and two types of N addition (NO 3 À -N and NH 4 + -N) with different levels on seed bank germination in two separate trials in April and July 2015 in a semiarid grassland on the Loess Plateau, China.Results showed seed bank germination was remarkably inhibited under the LW soil water regime. Species composition of emerged seedlings significantly differed between the two soil water regimes. N addition promoted seed bank germination under the HW soil water regime. This promoting effect was less noticeable under the LW, while still significant in the high level of NH 4 + -N in the July trial. N addition did not alter the species composition of emerged seedlings. Overall, this study suggests that soil moisture controls soil seed bank germination and species composition of emerged seedlings. Soil N addition, for example, by N deposition, greatly promotes soil seed bank germination when soil moisture is high (e.g., during seed germination season in July), and still marginally facilitates seed germination under low soil moisture conditions (e.g., at the beginning of the growing season in April). N deposition may therefore deplete the grassland soil seed bank if other processes (e.g., seed input) remain unchanged.

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Grassland productivity and diversity changes in responses to N and P addition depend primarily on tall clonal and annual species in semiarid Loess Plateau

Cited by 27 publications

References 39 publications

N and P Addition Reduce Semiarid Grassland Stability via Increasing the Dominance of Less-Stable Functional Groups

N and P Addition Reduce Semiarid Grassland Stability via Increasing the Dominance of Less-Stable Functional Groups

Aboveground biomass production and dominant species type determined canopy storage capacity of abandoned grassland communities on semiarid Loess Plateau

Effects of nitrogen addition and watering on soil seed bank germination in a semiarid grassland on the Loess Plateau of China

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