TY - JOUR
T1 - Changes in vegetation parameters and soil nutrients along degradation and recovery successions on alpine grasslands of the Tibetan plateau
AU - Guo, Na
AU - Degen, A. Allan
AU - Deng, Bin
AU - Shi, Fuyu
AU - Bai, Y.
AU - Zhang, Tao
AU - Long, Ruijun
AU - Shang, Zhanhuan
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Project ( 2016YFC0501906 ), Natural Science Foundation of China ( 41671508 ; 31870433 ), Key R&D and Transformation Program of Qinghai ( 2017-NK-149-2 ), The Second Stage’s Research and Technique Extending Project of Sanjiangyuan Ecological Protection and Building of 2017 in Qinghai ( 2017-S-1-06 ), and Qinghai Innovation Platform Construction Project ( 2017-ZJ-Y20 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2019/11/15
Y1 - 2019/11/15
N2 - Understanding the changes in vegetation parameters and soil nutrients in the different stages of grasslands degradation and recovery is crucial for assessing and restoring degraded grasslands. Consequently, we determined above-ground vegetation and soil C, N and P concentrations and their stoichiometry in different degradation and recovery stages on the Tibetan Plateau. Four degradation succession stages, GKC: Grass-Kobresia community, KHC: Kobresia humilis community, KPC: Kobresia pygmaea community, and FBC: forbs - black soil beach community, and three recovery succession stages, FG: freely grazed, RG: restricted grazed, and NG: non-grazed, were identified. Above-ground biomass and vegetation coverage decreased with degradation succession and there was a concomitant shift of plant functional groups to more above-ground biomass of forbs and less biomass of grasses and sedges. The highest species diversity emerged in the K. pygmaea succession stage, mainly due to an influx of Compositae. Significant differences in soil total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations occurred in the 0–10 and 10–20 cm layers among degradation successions. Vegetation cover, above-ground biomass, soil TN and SOC, as well as C:N and C:P ratios increased in non-grazed grasslands when compared to grazed grasslands. Soil TN, TP and SOC concentrations decreased with increasing soil depths across all degradation and recovery successions. In addition, soil nutrients and their stoichiometry were affected by above-ground biomass. We concluded that grazing exclusion could improve the above-ground vegetation and soil nutrients of degraded alpine grasslands, but that the rate of recovery was related to the degree of degradation.
AB - Understanding the changes in vegetation parameters and soil nutrients in the different stages of grasslands degradation and recovery is crucial for assessing and restoring degraded grasslands. Consequently, we determined above-ground vegetation and soil C, N and P concentrations and their stoichiometry in different degradation and recovery stages on the Tibetan Plateau. Four degradation succession stages, GKC: Grass-Kobresia community, KHC: Kobresia humilis community, KPC: Kobresia pygmaea community, and FBC: forbs - black soil beach community, and three recovery succession stages, FG: freely grazed, RG: restricted grazed, and NG: non-grazed, were identified. Above-ground biomass and vegetation coverage decreased with degradation succession and there was a concomitant shift of plant functional groups to more above-ground biomass of forbs and less biomass of grasses and sedges. The highest species diversity emerged in the K. pygmaea succession stage, mainly due to an influx of Compositae. Significant differences in soil total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations occurred in the 0–10 and 10–20 cm layers among degradation successions. Vegetation cover, above-ground biomass, soil TN and SOC, as well as C:N and C:P ratios increased in non-grazed grasslands when compared to grazed grasslands. Soil TN, TP and SOC concentrations decreased with increasing soil depths across all degradation and recovery successions. In addition, soil nutrients and their stoichiometry were affected by above-ground biomass. We concluded that grazing exclusion could improve the above-ground vegetation and soil nutrients of degraded alpine grasslands, but that the rate of recovery was related to the degree of degradation.
KW - Alpine grassland
KW - Degradation succession
KW - Enclosure
KW - Recovery succession
KW - Soil stoichiometry
KW - Vegetation parameters
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068383065&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.agee.2019.106593
DO - 10.1016/j.agee.2019.106593
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85068383065
VL - 284
JO - Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
JF - Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
SN - 0167-8809
M1 - 106593
ER -