TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of loss of plant functional group and simulated nitrogen deposition on subalpine ecosystem properties on the Tibetan Plateau
AU - Li, Wenjin
AU - Zhang, Rulan
AU - Liu, Shuangshuang
AU - Li, Weixin
AU - Li, Jinhua
AU - Zhou, Huakun
AU - Knops, Johannes M.H.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018
PY - 2018/8/1
Y1 - 2018/8/1
N2 - Biodiversity loss impacts on ecosystem functioning can vary greatly among ecosystems types and different ecosystem processes can respond differently. Here we conducted a plant functional group removal experiment with and without nitrogen (N) addition (5 g N m−2 year−1) to examine the effects of plant functional group types presence, nitrogen deposition and their interaction effects on plant diversity, aboveground biomass, soil nutrients, soil microbial biomass and soil enzyme activity. After 4 years, the removal of dominant grass did increase subordinates, forb richness, and decreased total aboveground biomass significantly. However, the removal of forb resulted in a rapid decline in species richness, which did not change strongly the aboveground biomass, regardless of N addition. This pattern suggests that the dominant grass can compensate for the loss of forb removal with respect to production, but cannot compensate with respect to species loss. Forb cannot compensate for grass removal with respect to production, but can compensate with respect to species loss. Nitrogen addition only has a small effect on species richness, and also not enhances aboveground biomass. In addition, the majority of soil properties did not respond to either plant functional group removal, or N addition. Only soil CO2 efflux and soil NO3−-N content significantly changed with plant functional group removal. Soil respiration rate was positively correlated with both plant species richness (R2 = 0.97) and aboveground biomass (R2 = 0.64). Our results show that the short-term losses of plant functional group have significant effects on plant diversity and productivity, and only minor impact on soil properties.
AB - Biodiversity loss impacts on ecosystem functioning can vary greatly among ecosystems types and different ecosystem processes can respond differently. Here we conducted a plant functional group removal experiment with and without nitrogen (N) addition (5 g N m−2 year−1) to examine the effects of plant functional group types presence, nitrogen deposition and their interaction effects on plant diversity, aboveground biomass, soil nutrients, soil microbial biomass and soil enzyme activity. After 4 years, the removal of dominant grass did increase subordinates, forb richness, and decreased total aboveground biomass significantly. However, the removal of forb resulted in a rapid decline in species richness, which did not change strongly the aboveground biomass, regardless of N addition. This pattern suggests that the dominant grass can compensate for the loss of forb removal with respect to production, but cannot compensate with respect to species loss. Forb cannot compensate for grass removal with respect to production, but can compensate with respect to species loss. Nitrogen addition only has a small effect on species richness, and also not enhances aboveground biomass. In addition, the majority of soil properties did not respond to either plant functional group removal, or N addition. Only soil CO2 efflux and soil NO3−-N content significantly changed with plant functional group removal. Soil respiration rate was positively correlated with both plant species richness (R2 = 0.97) and aboveground biomass (R2 = 0.64). Our results show that the short-term losses of plant functional group have significant effects on plant diversity and productivity, and only minor impact on soil properties.
KW - Biodiversity loss
KW - Compensatory effect
KW - Mass ratio hypothesis
KW - Nitrogen (N) addition
KW - Plant functional group (PFG)
KW - Subalpine meadow removal experiments (SMRE)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85043325393&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.287
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.287
M3 - Article
C2 - 29525708
AN - SCOPUS:85043325393
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 631-632
SP - 289
EP - 297
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
ER -