Effects of Water and Nitrogen Addition on Ecosystem Carbon Exchange in a Meadow Steppe

A changing precipitation regime and increasing nitrogen deposition are likely to have profound impacts on arid and semiarid ecosystem C cycling, which is often constrained by the timing and availability of water and nitrogen. However, little is known about the effects of altered precipitation and nitrogen addition on grassland ecosystem C exchange. We conducted a 3-year field experiment to assess the responses of vegetation composition, ecosystem productivity, and ecosystem C exchange to manipulative water and nitrogen addition in a meadow steppe. Nitrogen addition significantly stimulated aboveground biomass and net ecosystem CO₂ exchange (NEE), which suggests that nitrogen availability is a primary limiting factor for ecosystem C cycling in the meadow steppe. Water addition had no significant impacts on either ecosystem C exchange or plant biomass, but ecosystem C fluxes showed a strong correlation with early growing season precipitation, rather than whole growing season precipitation, across the 3 experimental years. After we incorporated water addition into the calculation of precipitation regimes, we found that monthly average ecosystem C fluxes correlated more strongly with precipitation frequency than with precipitation amount. These results highlight the importance of precipitation distribution in regulating ecosystem C cycling. Overall, ecosystem C fluxes in the studied ecosystem are highly sensitive to nitrogen deposition, but less sensitive to increased precipitation.     

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Mediate Grazing Effects on Seasonal Soil Nitrogen Fluxes in a Steppe Ecosystem

Ecosystems - Grazing and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) influence soil nitrogen (N) cycling in grassland ecosystems. However, it remains unclear whether AMF mediate grazing effects on soil N...     

Non-Additive Effects of Water and Nitrogen Addition on Ecosystem Carbon Exchange in a Temperate Steppe

Changes in precipitation and nitrogen (N) deposition can influence ecosystem carbon (C) cycling and budget in terrestrial biomes, with consequent feedbacks to climate change. However, little is known about the main and interactive effects of water and N additions on net ecosystem C exchange (NEE). In a temperate steppe of northern China, a field-manipulated experiment was conducted to evaluate the responses of NEE and its components to improve N and water availability from 2005 to 2008. The results showed that both water and N additions stimulated gross ecosystem productivity (GEP), ecosystem respiration (ER), and NEE. Water addition increased GEP by 17%, ER by 24%, and NEE by 11% during the experimental period, whereas N addition increased GEP by 17%, ER by 16%, and NEE by 19%. The main effects of both water and N additions changed with time, with the strongest water stimulation in the dry year and a diminishing N stimulation over time. When water and N were added in combination, there were non-additive effects of water and N on ecosystem C fluxes, which could be explained by the changes in species composition and the shifts of limiting resources from belowground (water or N) to aboveground (light). The positive water and N additions effects indicate that increasing precipitation and N deposition in the future will favor C sequestration in the temperate steppe. The non-additive effects of water and N on ecosystem C fluxes suggest that multifactor experiments are better able to capture complex interactive processes, thus improving model simulations and projections.     

Plant Functional Type Effects on Trace Gas Fluxes in the Shortgrass Steppe

Plant community structure is expected to regulate the microbial processes of nitrification and denitrification by controlling the availability of inorganic N substrates. Thus it could also be a factor in the concomitant release of NO and N2O from soils as a result of these processes. C3 and C4 plants differ in several attributes related to the cycling of nitrogen and were hypothesized to yield differences in trace gas exchange between soil and atmosphere. In this study we estimated fluxes of NO, N2O and CH4 from soils of shortgrass steppe communities dominated by either C3 plants, C4 plants or mixtures of the two types. We collected gas samples weekly from two sites, a sandy clay loam and a clay, throughout the growing seasons of 1995 and 1996. Plant functional type effects on gas fluxes at the clay site were not apparent, however we found several differences among plant communities on the sandy clay loam. CH4 uptake from atmosphere to soil was significantly greater on C4 plots than C3 plots in both years. NO fluxes were significantly greater from C4 plots than from C3 plots in 1995. NO fluxes from C3 and mixed plots were not significantly different between 1995 and 1996, however fluxes from C4 plots were significantly greater in 1995 compared to 1996. Results indicate that under certain environmental conditions, particularly when factors such as moisture and temperature are not limiting, plant community composition can play an important role in regulating trace gas exchange.     

Soil Bacterial Communities Respond to Mowing and Nutrient Addition in a Steppe Ecosystem

In many grassland ecosystems, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are added to improve plant productivity, and the aboveground plant biomass is mowed and stored as hay for the bullamacow. Nutrient addition and mowing affect the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and most of the previous studies have primarily focused on their effects on macro-organisms, neglecting the responses of soil microbial communities. In this study, we examined the changes in three community attributes (abundance, richness, and composition) of the entire bacterial kingdom and 16 dominant bacterial phyla/classes in response to mowing, N addition, P addition, and their combinations, by conducting a 5-year experiment in a steppe ecosystem in Inner Mongolia, China. Overall, N addition had a greater effect than mowing and P addition on most of these bacterial groups, as indicated by changes in the abundance, richness and composition in response to these treatments. N addition affected these soil bacterial groups primarily through reducing soil pH and increasing available N content. Meanwhile, the 16 bacterial phyla/classes responded differentially to these experimental treatments, with Acidobacteria, Acidimicrobidae, Deltaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria being the most sensitive. The changes in the abundance, richness, and composition of various bacterial groups could imply some potential shift in their ecosystem functions. Furthermore, the important role of decreased soil pH caused by N addition in affecting soil bacterial communities suggests the importance of restoring acidified soil to maintain soil bacterial diversity.     

Nitrogen Uptake During Fall, Winter and Spring Differs Among Plant Functional Groups in a Subarctic Heath Ecosystem

Nitrogen (N) is a critical resource for plant growth in tundra ecosystems, and species differences in the timing of N uptake may be an important feature regulating community composition and ecosystem productivity. We added ¹⁵N-labelled glycine to a subarctic heath tundra dominated by dwarf shrubs, mosses and graminoids in fall, and investigated its partitioning among ecosystem components at several time points (October, November, April, May, June) through to the following spring/early summer. Soil microbes had acquired 65?±?7% of the ¹⁵N tracer by October, but this pool decreased through winter to 37?±?7% by April indicating significant microbial N turnover prior to spring thaw. Only the evergreen dwarf shrubs showed active ¹⁵N acquisition before early May indicating that they had the highest potential of all functional groups for acquiring nutrients that became available in early spring. The faster-growing deciduous shrubs did not resume ¹⁵N acquisition until after early May indicating that they relied more on nitrogen made available later during the spring/early summer. The graminoids and mosses had no significant increases in ¹⁵N tracer recovery or tissue ¹⁵N tracer concentrations after the first harvest in October. However, the graminoids had the highest root ¹⁵N tracer concentrations of all functional groups in October indicating that they primarily relied on N made available during summer and fall. Our results suggest a temporal differentiation among plant functional groups in the post-winter resumption of N uptake with evergreen dwarf shrubs having the highest potential for early N uptake, followed by deciduous dwarf shrubs and graminoids.     

Warming Effects on Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes Are Modulated by Plant Functional Types

Despite the importance of future carbon (C) pools for policy and land management decisions under various climate change scenarios, predictions of these pools under altered climate vary considerably. Chronic warming will likely impact both ecosystem C fluxes and the abundance and distribution of plant functional types (PFTs) within systems, potentially interacting to create novel patterns of C exchange. Here, we report results from a 3-year warming experiment using open top chambers (OTC) on the Tibetan Plateau meadow grassland. Warming significantly increased C uptake through gross primary productivity (GPP) but not ecosystem respiration (ER), resulting in a 31.0% reduction in net ecosystem exchange (NEE) in warmed plots. The OTC-induced changes in ecosystem C fluxes were not fully explained by the corresponding changes in soil temperature and moisture. Warming treatments significantly increased the biomass of graminoids and legumes by 12.9 and 27.6%. These functional shifts were correlated with enhanced local GPP, but not ER, resulting in more negative NEE in plots with larger increases in graminoid and legume biomass. This may be due to a link between greater legume abundance and higher levels of total inorganic nitrogen, which can potentially drive higher GPP, but not higher ER. Overall, our results indicate that C-climate feedbacks might be closely mediated by climate-induced changes in PFTs. This highlights the need to consider the impacts of changes in PFTs when predicting future responses of C pools under altered climate scenarios.     

内蒙古锡林河流域植物功能群组成及其水分利用效率的变化——依水分生态类群划分

依照植物水分生态类群,将锡林河流域主要植物种划分为6个植物功能群:旱生植物、中旱生植物、旱中生植物、中生植物、湿中生植物和湿生植物。沿土壤水分梯度,我们调查了8个植物群落的功能群组成及其d13C值。结果表明:1)在水分状况不同的8个群落中,植物功能群的组成有很大差异。在较湿润生境中(沼泽化草甸和盐化草甸),湿中生和湿生植物成为优势种并构成地上生物量的主要部分;在干旱生境中(草甸草原、典型草原和退化草原),旱生和中旱生植物占绝对优势并构成群落生物量的90%以上;2)不同功能群d13C值表现为:旱生植物(-26.38) = 中旱生植物(-26.51) > 旱中生植物(-27.02) > 中生植物(-27.56) = 湿中生和湿生植物(-27.80),表明随着不同水分生态类群所适应生境从干旱到湿润逐渐转变,植物的水分利用效率显著降低;3)在土壤水分状况不同的生境下,旱生植物始终维持相对较高的d13C值和水分利用效率;而中旱生植物的d13C值表现出较大的变化幅度,表明其对土壤水分的改变更敏感;4)旱生植物叶片脯氨酸含量最高;旱中生、中旱生和中生植物次之;湿中生和湿生植物脯氨酸含量最低。不同水分生态类群脯氨酸含量与其d13C值和地上生物量呈显著正相关关系。     

内蒙古锡林河流域植物功能群组成及其水分利用效率的变化--依水分生态类群划分

依照植物水分生态类群,将锡林河流域主要植物种划分为6个植物功能群:呈生植物、中旱生植物、旱中生植物、中生植物、湿中生植物和湿生植物.沿土壤水分梯度,我们调查了8个植物群落的功能群组成及其δ13C值.结果表明:1)在水分状况不同的8个群落中,植物功能群的组成有很大差异.在较湿润生境中(沼泽化草甸和盐化草甸),湿中生和湿生植物成为优势种并构成地上生物量的主要部分;在干旱生境中(草甸草原、典型草原和退化草原),旱生和中旱生植物占绝对优势并构成群落生物量的90%以上;2)不同功能群δ13C值表现为:旱生植物(26.38‰)=中旱生植物(26.51‰)＞旱中生植物(-27.02‰)＞中生植物(-27.56‰)=湿中生和湿生植物(-27.80‰),表明随着不同水分生态类群所适应生境从干旱到湿润逐渐转变,植物的水分利用效率显著降低;3)在土壤水分状况不同的生境下,旱生植物始终维持相对较高的δ13C值和水分利用效率;而中旱生植物的δ13C值表现出较大的变化幅度,表明其对土壤水分的改变更敏感;4)旱生植物叶片脯氨酸含量最高;旱中生、中旱生和中生植物次之;湿中生和湿生植物脯氨酸含量最低.不同水分生态类群脯氨酸含量与其δ13C值和地上生物量呈显著正相关关系.     

湿地水鸟栖息对土壤磷和植物群落特征的影响

为了探究水鸟栖息对土壤磷和植物群落特征的影响,分别在广东顺德水鸟天堂、广东星湖湿地及江门小鸟天堂3地的水鸟栖息区(水鸟区)和非水鸟栖息区(对照区)进行了植物群落调查和土壤理化性质检测。结果表明,水鸟活动提高了各栖息地土壤的总磷、有效磷和无机磷,而在顺德、星湖两地水鸟区土壤有机磷含量亦显著高于对照区。各栖息地植物物种丰富度和shannon多样性指数均显著小于对照区。土壤pH、容重、有机质和有效磷4种环境因子对植物群落变异影响的总解释率为46% (P＜0.05),其中有效磷是最大影响因子。这说明水鸟活动显著提高了土壤中各种磷组分的含量,降低了植物的多样性。     

Evaluating the Effects of Chlortetracycline on the Proliferation of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in a Simulated River Water Ecosystem

Antibiotics and antibiotic metabolites have been found in the environment, but the biological activities of these compounds are uncertain, especially given the low levels that are typically detected in the environment. The objective of this study was to estimate the selection potential of chlortetracycline (CTC) on the antibiotic resistance of aerobic bacterial populations in a simulated river water ecosystem. Six replicates of a 10-day experiment using river water in continuous flow chemostat systems were conducted. Each replicate used three chemostats, one serving as a control to which no antibiotic was added and the other two receiving low and high doses of CTC (8 μg/liter and 800 μg/liter, respectively). The addition of CTC to the chemostats did not impact the overall level of cultivable aerobic bacteria (P = 0.51). The high-CTC chemostat had significantly higher tetracycline-resistant bacterial colony counts than both the low-CTC and the control chemostats (P < 0.035). The differences in resistance between the low-CTC and control chemostats were highly nonsignificant (P = 0.779). In general a greater diversity of tet resistance genes was detected in the high-CTC chemostat and with a greater frequency than in the low-CTC and control chemostats. Low levels of CTC in this in vitro experiment did not select for increased levels of tetracycline resistance among cultivable aerobic bacteria. This finding should not be equated with the absence of environmental risk, however. Low concentrations of antibiotics in the environment may select for resistant bacterial populations once they are concentrated in sediments or other locations.     

贵州茅台水源功能区植物叶片形态与持水特征及其功能群划分

从植物形态结构—功能—植物功能群的角度,采用PCA分析、RDA排序和聚类分析法分析了植物叶片形态特征与持水能力的关系,划分了叶片持水功能群。结果表明：决定植物叶片持水能力的主要形态指标为叶片大小、叶片宽窄、叶片粗糙度,据此,评价了贵州茅台水源功能区植物群落中31个主要树种的叶片持水能力,并划分为6个叶片持水功能群：大叶窄叶中粗糙度高持水功能群（PFGsⅠ）、中叶窄叶高粗糙度高持水功能群（PFGsⅡ）、中叶宽叶高粗糙度中持水功能群（PFGsⅢ）、小叶窄叶低粗糙度中持水功能群（PFGsⅣ）、中叶宽叶低粗糙度中持水功能群（PFGsⅤ）、中叶常叶低粗糙度低持水功能群（PFGsⅥ）,并描述了各叶片持水功能群的基本特征。     

Nitrogen Fertilization Has a Stronger Effect on Soil Nitrogen-Fixing Bacterial Communities than Elevated Atmospheric CO2

Biological nitrogen fixation is the primary supply of N to most ecosystems, yet there is considerable uncertainty about how N-fixing bacteria will respond to global change factors such as increasing atmospheric CO₂ and N deposition. Using the nifH gene as a molecular marker, we studied how the community structure of N-fixing soil bacteria from temperate pine, aspen, and sweet gum stands and a brackish tidal marsh responded to multiyear elevated CO₂ conditions. We also examined how N availability, specifically, N fertilization, interacted with elevated CO₂ to affect these communities in the temperate pine forest. Based on data from Sanger sequencing and quantitative PCR, the soil nifH composition in the three forest systems was dominated by species in the Geobacteraceae and, to a lesser extent, Alphaproteobacteria. The N-fixing-bacterial-community structure was subtly altered after 10 or more years of elevated atmospheric CO₂, and the observed shifts differed in each biome. In the pine forest, N fertilization had a stronger effect on nifH community structure than elevated CO₂ and suppressed the diversity and abundance of N-fixing bacteria under elevated atmospheric CO₂ conditions. These results indicate that N-fixing bacteria have complex, interacting responses that will be important for understanding ecosystem productivity in a changing climate.     

氮素添加对内蒙古草甸草原生态系统CO2交换的影响

氮沉降增加将影响草原生态系统固碳, 但如何影响草原生态系统CO₂交换目前为止还没有定论。同时, 不同类型和剂量氮素对生态系统CO₂交换影响的差异也不明确。选取内蒙古额尔古纳草甸草原, 开展了不同类型氮肥和不同剂量氮素添加条件下生态系统CO₂交换的野外测定。实验设置尿素和缓释尿素2种类型氮肥各5个剂量水平(0、5.0、10.0、20.0和50.0 g N·m^-2·a^-1)。结果显示, 生长季初期及中期降雨量低时, 氮素添加抑制生态系统CO₂交换; 而生长季末期降雨量较高时促进生态系统CO₂交换。随着氮素添加水平的提高, NEE和GEP均显著增加, 当氮素添加量达到10 g N·m^-2·a^-1时, NEE和GEP的响应趋于饱和。2种氮肥(尿素和缓释尿素)仅在施氮量为5 g N·m^-2·a^-1时, 缓释尿素对生态系统CO₂交换的促进作用显著大于尿素, 在其它添加剂量时差异不显著。研究结果表明: 氮素是该草甸草原生态系统的重要限制因子, 但氮沉降增加对生态系统CO₂交换的影响强烈地受降雨量与降雨季节分配的限制, 不同氮肥(尿素和缓释尿素)对生态系统CO₂交换作用存在差异。     

Genetically Engineered Erwinia carotovora in Aquatic Microcosms: Survival and Effects on Functional Groups of Indigenous Bacteria

The survival of genetically engineered Erwinia carotovora L-864, with a kanamycin resistance gene inserted in its chromosome, was monitored in the water and sediment of aquatic microcosms. The density of genetically engineered and wild-type E. carotovora strains declined at the same rate, falling in 32 days below the level of detection by viable counts. We examined the impact of the addition of genetically engineered and wild-type strains on indigenous bacteria belonging to specific functional groups important in nutrient cycling. For up to 16 days, the densities of total and proteolytic bacteria were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in microcosms inoculated with genetically engineered or wild-type E. carotovora, but by 32 days after inoculation, they had decreased to densities similar to those in control microcosms. Inoculation of genetically engineered or wild-type E. carotovora had no apparent effect on the density of amylolytic and pectolytic bacteria in water and sediment. Genetically engineered and wild-type E. carotovora did not have significantly different effects on the densities of specific functional groups of indigenous bacteria (P > 0.05).     

Effects of Soil Water Content on Biodegradation of Phenanthrene in a Mixture of Organic Contaminants

Phenanthrene biodegradation was investigated at different soil water contents [0.11, 0.22, 0.33, 0.44 g H₂O (g soil)^?1] to determine the effects of water availability on biodegradation rate. A subsurface horizon of Kennebec silty loam soil was used in this study. [9-¹⁴C] phenanthrene was dissolved in a mixture of organic contaminants that consisted of 76% decane, 6% ρ-xylene, 6% phenanthrene, 6% pristane, and 6% naphthalene, and then added to the soil. The highest rate of mineralization, in which 0.23% of the [9-¹⁴C] phenanthrene degraded to ¹⁴CO₂ after 66 days of incubation, was observed at the soil water content of 0.44 g H₂O/g dry soil. Most of the ¹⁴C remained in the soil as the parent compound or as nonextractable compounds by acetonitrile at the highest water content. Concentrations of nonextractable compounds increased with water content, but residual extractable phenanthrene decreased significantly with increasing water content, which presumably indicates that bio-transformation occurred. The mineralization analysis of radiolabeled 9th carbon in phenanthrene underestimated phenanthrene biodegradation. The strong adsorption and low solubility of phenanthrene contributed to the low mineralization of phenanthrene 9th carbon. The other components were subject to higher biological and abiotic dissipation processes with increasing soil water content.     

Formyltetrahydrofolate Synthetase Sequences from Salt Marsh Plant Roots Reveal a Diversity of Acetogenic Bacteria and Other Bacterial Functional Groups

Sixty-two partial formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase (FTHFS) structural gene sequences were recovered from roots of salt marsh plants, including Spartina alterniflora, Salicornia virginica, and Juncus roemerianus. Only S. alterniflora roots yielded sequences grouping with FTHFS sequences from known acetogens. Most other FTHFS or FTHFS-like sequences grouped with those from sulfate-reducing bacteria. Several sequences that grouped with Sphingomonas paucimobilis ligH were also recovered.     

Effects of Grazing Regimes on Plant Traits and Soil Nutrients in an Alpine Steppe,Northern Tibetan Plateau

Understanding the impact of grazing intensity on grassland production and soil fertility is of fundamental importance for grassland conservation and management. We thus compared three types of alpine steppe management by studying vegetation traits and soil properties in response to three levels of grazing pressure: permanent grazing (M1), seasonal grazing (M2), and grazing exclusion (M3) in the alpine steppe in Xainza County, Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that community biomass allocation did not support the isometric hypothesis under different grassland management types. Plants in M1 had less aboveground biomass but more belowground biomass in the top soil layer than those in M2 and M3, which was largely due to that root/shoot ratios of dominant plants in M1 were far greater than those in M2 and M3. The interramet distance and the tiller size of the dominant clonal plants were greater in M3 than in M1 and M2, while the resprouting from rhizome buds did not differ significantly among the three greezing regimes. Both soil bulk density and soil available nitrogen in M3 were greater than in M1 at the 15–30 cm soil depth (P = 0.05). Soil organic carbon and soil total nitrogen were greater in M3 than in M1 and M2 (P = 0.05). We conclude that the isometric hypothesis is not supported in this study and fencing is a helpful grassland management in terms of plant growth and soil nutrient retention in alpine steppe. The extreme cold, scarce precipitation and short growing period may be the causation of the unique plant and soil responses to different management regimes.     

内蒙古羊草草原17年刈割演替过程中功能群组成动态及其对群落净初级生产力稳定性的影响(英文)

基于17 yr的野外实验数据,研究了内蒙古羊草草原群落刈割演替过程中的功能群组成动态,探索了功能群组成变化与群落净初级生产力(ANPP)之间的关系,分析了结构参数怎样影响功能参数。结果显示:在17 yr的割草演替过程中,群落的结构与功能均发生了变化。随着羊草群落刈割演替的进行,群落的功能群组成发生了显著变化,根茎禾草在群落中的优势地位相继被一、二年生植物、高丛生禾草和矮丛生禾草所取代。到17 yr末,群落变成根茎禾草、矮丛生禾草、高丛生禾草共同建群的群落。在对照群落中ANPP与年降水量显著相关,但在刈割群落中二者则不相关。年降水量解释对照群落ANPP变异的62％,而连年的刈割干扰则是刈割群落中ANPP动态的主要驱动因子。群落净初级生产则显出对刈割干扰的抵抗能力,在刈割干扰的前几年,依靠群落内功能群组成的不断调节,保持相对稳定的水平,当刈割进行5 yr之后,群落结构的变化积累到一定程度,净初级生产迅速下降到一个较低的水平,此后依靠群落结构的不断调节来维持这一功能水平。因此,群落结构是以渐变的方式改变的,而群落功能的下降则是以跃变的形式完成的。群落依赖于结构的不断调整来保持功能的相对稳定,但结构变化到一定程度也会导致功能的衰退。