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  • Elevated CO2 increases shoot growth but not root growth and C:N:P stoichiometry of Suaeda aralocaspica plants

    分类: 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间: 2021-12-03 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》

    摘要: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the eco-physiological responses, in terms of growth and C:N:P stoichiometry of plants cultured from dimorphic seeds of a single-cell C4 annual Suaeda aralocaspica (Bunge) Freitag and Schütze under elevated CO2. A climatic chamber experiment was conducted to examine the effects of ambient (720 μg/L) and CO2-enriched (1440 μg/L) treatments on these responses in S. aralocaspica at vegetative and reproductive stages in 2012. Result showed that elevated CO2 significantly increased shoot dry weight, but decreased N:P ratio at both growth stages. Plants grown from dimorphic seeds did not exhibit significant differences in growth and C:N:P stoichiometric characteristics. The transition from vegetation to reproductive stage significantly increased shoot:root ratio, N and P contents, but decreased C:N, C:P and N:P ratios, and did not affect shoot dry weight. Moreover, our results indicate that the changes in N:P and C:N ratios between ambient and elevated CO2 are mainly caused by the decrease of N content under elevated CO2. These results provide an insight into nutritional metabolism of single-cell C4 plants under climate change.

  • Transformation of vegetative cover on the Ustyurt Plateau of Central Asia as a consequence of the Aral Sea shrinkage

    分类: 地球科学 >> 地理学 提交时间: 2021-01-22 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》

    摘要: The gradual shrinkage of the Aral Sea has led to not only the degradation of the unique environments of the Aral Sea, but also numerous and fast developing succession processes in the neighborhood habitats surrounding the sea. In this study, we investigated the vegetative succession processes related to the Aral Sea shrinkage in the Eastern Cliff of the Ustyurt Plateau in Republic of Uzbekistan, Central Asia. We compared the results of our current investigation (2010–2017) on vegetative communities with the geobotany data collected during the 1970s (1970–1980). The results showed great changes in the mesophytic plant communities and habitat aridization as a result of the drop in the underground water level, which decreased atmospheric humidity and increased the salt content of the soil caused by the shrinkage of the Aral Sea. In the vegetative communities, we observed a decrease in the Margalef index (DMg), which had a positive correlation with the poly-dominance index (I-D). The main indications of the plant communities' transformation were the loss of the weak species, the appearance of new communities with low species diversity, the stabilization of the projective cover of former resistant communities, as well as the appearance of a new competitive species, which occupy new habitats.

  • Ecological biomass allocation strategies in plant species with different life forms in a cold desert, China

    分类: 环境科学技术及资源科学技术 >> 环境科学技术基础学科 提交时间: 2019-10-26 合作期刊: 《干旱区科学》

    摘要: Biomass allocation patterns among plant species are related to their adaptive ecological strategies. Ephemeral, ephemeroid and annual plant life forms represent three typical growth strategies of plants that grow in autumn and early spring in the cold deserts of China. These plants play an important role in reducing wind velocity in the desert areas. However, despite numerous studies, the strategies of biomass allocation among plant species with these three life forms remain contentious. In this study, we conducted a preliminary quadrat study during 2014–2016 in the southern part of the Gurbantunggut Desert, China, to investigate the allocation patterns of above-ground biomass (AGB) and below-ground biomass (BGB) at the individual level in 17 ephemeral, 3 ephemeroid and 4 annual plant species. Since ephemeral plants can germinate in autumn, we also compared biomass allocation patterns between plants that germinated in autumn 2015 and spring 2016 for 4 common ephemeral species. The healthy mature individual plants of each species were sampled and the AGB, BGB, total biomass (TB), leaf mass ratio (LMR) and root/shoot ratio (R/S) were calculated for 201 sample quadrats in the study area. We also studied the relationships between AGB and BGB of plants with the three different life forms (ephemeral, ephemeroid and annual). The mean AGB values of ephemeral, ephemeroid and annual plants were 0.806, 3.759 and 1.546 g/plant, respectively, and the mean BGB values were 0.106, 4.996 and 0.166 g/plant, respectively. The mean R/S value was significantly higher in ephemeroid plants (1.675) than in ephemeral (0.154) and annual (0.147) plants. The mean LMR was the highest in annual plants, followed by ephemeroid plants and ephemeral plants, reflecting the fact that annual plants allocate more biomass to leaves, associated with their longer life span. Biomass of ephemeral plants that germinated in autumn was significantly higher than those of corresponding plants that germinated in spring in terms of AGB, BGB and TB. However, the R/S value was similar in plants that germinated in autumn and spring. The slope of regression relationship between AGB and BGB differed significantly among the three plant life forms. These results support different biomass allocation hypotheses. Specifically, at the individual level, the AGB and BGB partitioning supports the allometric hypothesis for ephemeroid and annual plants and the isometric hypothesis for ephemeral plants.