Effects of Severing Rhizome on Clonal Growth in Rhizomatous Grass Species Psammochloa villosa and Leymus secalinus

A field experiment was conducted in Inner Mongolian dune to investigate the contribution of clonal integration to genet expansion and ramet establishment in clonal plants in semi-arid inland dune. In the experiment, the developing parts (plant observing unit) of two rhizomatous grass species Psammochloa villosa (Trin.) Bor and Leymus secalinus (Georgi.) Tzvel. were subjected to the treatment of severing rhizomes. The 7 characters relevant to the elonal growth of the plant observing units were investigated such as total length of shoots, number of shoots, number of rhizomes, length of main rhizome, total length of rhizomes, number of main rhizome nodes and total number of rhizome nodes. The results showed that the increments in those plant characters were reduced by the treatment in P. villosa, while no effect of the treatment was observed in L. secalinus. The results suggest an interspecific difference in clonal integration and in its contribution to clonal growth. In P. villosa, clonal integration and clonal growth offer great contributions to the survival of the plants in the sandy grassland characterized where water shortage, strong transevaporation, infertility, habitat patchiness and frequent disturbance were most characteristic.     

Effects of Substrate Addition on Soil Respiratory Carbon Release Under Long-Term Warming and Clipping in a Tallgrass Prairie

Regulatory mechanisms of soil respiratory carbon (C) release induced by substrates (i.e., plant derived substrates) are critical for predicting ecosystem responses to climate change, but the mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, we sampled soils from a long-term field manipulative experiment and conducted a laboratory incubation to explore the role of substrate supply in regulating the differences in soil C release among the experimental treatments, including control, warming, clipping, and warming plus clipping. Three types of substrates (glucose, C₃ and C₄ plant materials) were added with an amount equal to 1% of soil dry weight under the four treatments. We found that the addition of all three substrates significantly stimulated soil respiratory C release in all four warming and clipping treatments. In soils without substrate addition, warming significantly stimulated soil C release but clipping decreased it. However, additions of glucose and C₃ plant materials (C₃ addition) offset the warming effects, whereas C₄ addition still showed the warming-induced stimulation of soil C release. Our results suggest that long-term warming may inhibit microbial capacity for decomposition of C₃ litter but may enhance it for decomposition of C₄ litter. Such warming-induced adaptation of microbial communities may weaken the positive C-cycle feedback to warming due to increased proportion of C₄ species in plant community and decreased litter quality. In contrast, clipping may weaken microbial capacity for warming-induced decomposition of C₄ litter but may enhance it for C₃ litter. Warming- and clipping-induced shifts in microbial metabolic capacity may be strongly associated with changes in plant species composition and could substantially influence soil C dynamics in response to global change.     

Long-Term Effects of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs on Livestock Grazing Distribution and Mass Gain

The conservation and management of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) have been contentious issues in grasslands of central North America for much of the past century, primarily because of the perception that they compete with livestock for forage. Studies quantifying the magnitude of competition between prairie dogs and cattle are difficult to conduct because of the large spatial and long temporal scales needed to quantify how competition varies in response to interannual variation in precipitation and prairie dog abundance. We examined variation in mass gains of yearling steers in shortgrass steppe of northeastern Colorado, USA, with and without prairie dogs from 2008–2019, a period that encompassed a full cycle in prairie dog abundance from a nadir following plague-induced population collapse, to peak abundance following population recovery, to plague-induced population lows again. Analyses of cattle grazing distribution with global positioning system (GPS)-collars revealed preferential grazing on colonies following a period of unusually high vegetation production, and preferential grazing off colonies following a period of rapid vegetation senescence, but these patterns were not clearly related to cattle mass gains. Across all 12 years of the study, average daily mass gain (ADG) during the growing season was 0.97 kg/steer/day in pastures where prairie dogs were controlled annually, and 0.95 kg/steer/day in pastures where they were not. Average daily mass gain was a quadradic function of precipitation and a linear function of prairie dog occupancy within a pasture, with a generalized linear mixed model predicting an 8.0% decrease in ADG as prairie dog occupancy increased from 0 to 60% of a pasture with average growing-season precipitation. We did not detect a significant interaction between precipitation and prairie dog occupancy, but one limitation of our study is that the only drought year (2012) occurred when prairie dogs occupied low percentages (10–25%) of the study pastures. Prairie dogs had a small but detectable negative effect on cattle mass gains during the growing season in shortgrass steppe. The magnitude of this effect can be used by managers in combination with market conditions and the spatial extent of prairie dog colonies to estimate economic effects of prairie dogs on livestock operations. © 2021 The Wildlife Society. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

Effects of Phosphorylation on Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxykinase from the C4 Plant Guinea Grass

In the C4 plant Guinea grass (Panicum maximum), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) is phosphorylated in darkened leaves and dephosphorylated in illuminated leaves. To determine whether the properties of phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated PEPCK were different, PEPCK was purified to homogeneity from both illuminated and darkened leaves. The final step of the purification procedure, gel filtration chromatography, further separated phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated forms. In the presence of a high ratio of ATP to ADP, the non-phosphorylated enzyme had a higher affinity for its substrates, oxaloacetate and phosphoenolpyruvate. The activity of the non-phosphorylated form was up to 6-fold higher when measured at low substrate concentrations. Comparison of proteoloytically cleaved PEPCK from Guinea grass, which lacked its N-terminal extension, from yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), which does not possess an N-terminal extension, and from the C4 plant Urochloa panicoides, which possesses an N-terminal extension but is not subject to phosphorylation, revealed similar properties to the non-phosphorylated full-length form from Guinea grass. Assay of PEPCK activity in crude extracts of Guinea grass leaves, showed a large difference between illuminated and darkened leaves when measured in a selective assay (a low concentration of phosphoenolpyruvate and a high ratio of ATP to ADP), but there was no difference under assay conditions used to estimate maximum activity. Immunoblots of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gels showed no difference in the abundance of PEPCK protein in illuminated and darkened leaves. There were no light/dark differences in activity detected in maize (Zea mays) leaves, in which PEPCK is not subject to phosphorylation.     

Contrasting Effects of Elevated Temperature and Invertebrate Grazing Regulate Multispecies Interactions between Decomposer Fungi

Predicting the influence of biotic and abiotic factors on species interactions and ecosystem processes is among the primary aims of community ecologists. The composition of saprotrophic fungal communities is a consequence of competitive mycelial interactions, and a major determinant of woodland decomposition and nutrient cycling rates. Elevation of atmospheric temperature is predicted to drive changes in fungal community development. Top-down regulation of mycelial growth is an important determinant of, and moderator of temperature-driven changes to, two-species interaction outcomes. This study explores the interactive effects of a 4 °C temperature increase and soil invertebrate (collembola or woodlice) grazing on multispecies interactions between cord-forming basidiomycete fungi emerging from colonised beech (Fagus sylvatica) wood blocks. The fungal dominance hierarchy at ambient temperature (16 °C; Phanerochaete velutina > Resinicium bicolor > Hypholoma fasciculare) was altered by elevated temperature (20 °C; R. bicolor > P. velutina > H. fasciculare) in ungrazed systems. Warming promoted the competitive ability of the fungal species (R. bicolor) that was preferentially grazed by all invertebrate species. As a consequence, grazing prevented the effect of temperature on fungal community development and maintained a multispecies assemblage. Decomposition of fungal-colonised wood was stimulated by warming, with implications for increased CO₂ efflux from woodland soil. Analogous to aboveground plant communities, increasing complexity of biotic and abiotic interactions appears to be important in buffering climate change effects on soil decomposers.     

不同季节适度放牧对高寒草甸植物群落特征的影响

于2007~2011年对青藏高原高寒矮嵩草草甸在不同季节适度(牧草利用率35%~60%)放牧处理(不放牧、夏季放牧和冬季放牧)下的植物群落组成和物种多样性进行观测研究,结果表明:(1)经过长期的不同季节的适度放牧处理后,夏季放牧与冬季放牧均降低了禾本科植物功能群的比例,提高了杂草类植物功能群的比例。(2)与未放牧(对照)相比,夏季放牧处理下莎草科植物矮嵩草和杂类草蒙古蒲公英、鹅绒委陵菜的相对生物量分别增加了151.38%和318.87%、344.15%,禾本科植物异针茅相对生物量降低了41.16%;冬季放牧鹅绒委陵菜相对生物量增加了124.08%,禾本科植物草地早熟禾减少了45.99%,但夏季放牧和冬季放牧对二柱头藨草、紫羊茅、垂穗披碱草、花苜蓿和高山唐松草等植物的影响均不显著。(3)总体上不同季节适度放牧对植物群落物种丰富度、多样性指数以及均匀度指数的影响均不显著,但对这三者的影响随年份变化而变化。     

Tracking Plasticity: Effects of Long-Term Rehearsal in Expert Dancers Encoding Music to Movement

Our knowledge of neural plasticity suggests that neural networks show adaptation to environmental and intrinsic change. In particular, studies investigating the neuroplastic changes associated with learning and practicing motor tasks have shown that practicing such tasks results in an increase in neural activation in several specific brain regions. However, studies comparing experts and non-experts suggest that experts employ less neuronal activation than non-experts when performing a familiar motor task. Here, we aimed to determine the long-term changes in neural networks associated with learning a new dance in professional ballet dancers over 34 weeks. Subjects visualized dance movements to music while undergoing fMRI scanning at four time points over 34-weeks. Results demonstrated that initial learning and performance at seven weeks led to increases in activation in cortical regions during visualization compared to the first week. However, at 34 weeks, the cortical networks showed reduced activation compared to week seven. Specifically, motor learning and performance over the 34 weeks showed the typical inverted-U-shaped function of learning. Further, our result demonstrate that learning of a motor sequence of dance movements to music in the real world can be visualized by expert dancers using fMRI and capture highly significant modeled fits of the brain network variance of BOLD signals from early learning to expert level performance.     

Effects of a Long-Term Disturbance on Arthropods and Vegetation in Subalpine Wetlands: Manifestations of Pack Stock Grazing in Early versus Mid-Season

Conclusions regarding disturbance effects in high elevation or high latitude ecosystems based solely on infrequent, long-term sampling may be misleading, because the long winters may erase severe, short-term impacts at the height of the abbreviated growing season. We separated a) long-term effects of pack stock grazing, manifested in early season prior to stock arrival, from b) additional pack stock grazing effects that might become apparent during annual stock grazing, by use of paired grazed and control wet meadows that we sampled at the beginning and end of subalpine growing seasons. Control meadows had been closed to grazing for at least two decades, and meadow pairs were distributed across Sequoia National Park, California, USA. The study was thus effectively a landscape-scale, long-term manipulation of wetland grazing. We sampled arthropods at these remote sites and collected data on associated vegetation structure. Litter cover and depth, percent bare ground, and soil strength had negative responses to grazing. In contrast, fauna showed little response to grazing, and there were overall negative effects for only three arthropod families. Mid-season and long-term results were generally congruent, and the only indications of lower faunal diversity on mid-season grazed wetlands were trends of lower abundance across morphospecies and lower diversity for canopy fauna across assemblage metrics. Treatment x Season interactions almost absent. Thus impacts on vegetation structure only minimally cascaded into the arthropod assemblage and were not greatly intensified during the annual growing season. Differences between years, which were likely a response to divergent snowfall patterns, were more important than differences between early and mid-season. Reliance on either vegetation or faunal metrics exclusively would have yielded different conclusions; using both flora and fauna served to provide a more integrative view of ecosystem response.     

When Music and Long-Term Memory Interact: Effects of Musical Expertise on Functional and Structural Plasticity in the Hippocampus

The development of musical skills by musicians results in specific structural and functional modifications in the brain. Surprisingly, no functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study has investigated the impact of musical training on brain function during long-term memory retrieval, a faculty particularly important in music. Thus, using fMRI, we examined for the first time this process during a musical familiarity task (i.e., semantic memory for music). Musical expertise induced supplementary activations in the hippocampus, medial frontal gyrus, and superior temporal areas on both sides, suggesting a constant interaction between episodic and semantic memory during this task in musicians. In addition, a voxel-based morphometry (VBM) investigation was performed within these areas and revealed that gray matter density of the hippocampus was higher in musicians than in nonmusicians. Our data indicate that musical expertise critically modifies long-term memory processes and induces structural and functional plasticity in the hippocampus.     

Long-Term Effects of Reclamation Treatments on Plant Succession in Iceland

The long‐term effects (20–45 years) of reclamation treatments on plant succession are examined at two localities in Iceland that were fertilized and seeded from 1954 to 1979 with perennial grasses or annual grasses, or left untreated. The areas that underwent reclamation treatments had significantly higher total plant cover (7–100%) than the untreated control plots (<5%), and floristic composition was usually significantly different between treated and untreated plots. Dwarf‐shrubs (Calluna vulgaris and Empetrum nigrum), bryophytes, biological soil crust, grasses, and shrubs characterized the vegetation in the treated plots, but low‐growing herbs that have negligible effects on the environment, such as Cardaminopsis petraea and Minuartia rubella, and grasses characterized the control plots. The seeded grass species had declined (<10%, the perennials) or disappeared (the annuals) but acted as nurse species that facilitated the colonization of native plants. It seems that by seeding, some factors that limit plant colonization were overcome. Soil nutrients, vegetation cover, litter, and biological soil crust were greater in the treated areas than the control plots. This may have enhanced colonization through an increase in soil stability and fertility, increased availability of safe microsites, increased moisture, and the capture of wind‐blown seeds. This study demonstrates the importance of looking at the long‐term effects of reclamation treatments to understand their impact on vegetation succession.     

The Effects of Timing of Grazing on Plant and Arthropod Communities in High-Elevation Grasslands

Livestock grazing can be used as a key management tool for maintaining healthy ecosystems. However, the effectiveness of using grazing to modify habitat for species of conservation concern depends on how the grazing regime is implemented. Timing of grazing is one grazing regime component that is less understood than grazing intensity and grazer identity, but is predicted to have important implications for plant and higher trophic level responses. We experimentally assessed how timing of cattle grazing affected plant and arthropod communities in high-elevation grasslands of southwest Montana to better evaluate its use as a tool for multi-trophic level management. We manipulated timing of grazing, with one grazing treatment beginning in mid-June and the other in mid-July, in two experiments conducted in different grassland habitat types (i.e., wet meadow and upland) in 2011 and 2012. In the upland grassland experiment, we found that both early and late grazing treatments reduced forb biomass, whereas graminoid biomass was only reduced with late grazing. Grazing earlier in the growing season versus later did not result in greater recovery of graminoid or forb biomass as expected. In addition, the density of the most ubiquitous grassland arthropod order (Hemiptera) was reduced by both grazing treatments in upland grasslands. A comparison of end-of-season plant responses to grazing in upland versus wet meadow grasslands revealed that grazing reduced graminoid biomass in the wet meadow and forb biomass in the upland, irrespective of timing of grazing. Both grazing treatments also reduced end-of-season total arthropod and Hemiptera densities and Hemiptera biomass in both grassland habitat types. Our results indicate that both early and late season herbivory affect many plant and arthropod characteristics in a similar manner, but grazing earlier may negatively impact species of conservation concern requiring forage earlier in the growing season.     

Long-Term Consequences of Grazing and Burning on Northern Peatland Carbon Dynamics

Abstract Using a 50-year-old field experiment, we investigated the effects of the long-term land management practices of repeated burning and grazing on peatland vegetation and carbon dynamics (C). Plant community composition, C stocks in soils and vegetation, and C fluxes of CO₂, CH₄ and DOC, were measured over an 18-month period. We found that both burning and grazing reduced aboveground C stocks, and that burning reduced C stocks in the surface peat. Both burning and grazing strongly affected vegetation community composition, causing an increase in graminoids and a decrease in ericoid subshrubs and bryophytes relative to unburned and ungrazed controls; this effect was especially pronounced in burned treatments. Soil microbial properties were unaffected by grazing and showed minor responses to burning, in that the C:N ratio of the microbial biomass increased in burned relative to unburned treatments. Increases in the gross ecosystem CO₂ fluxes of respiration and photosynthesis were observed in burned and grazed treatments relative to controls. Here, the greatest effects were seen in the burning treatment, where the mean increase in gross fluxes over the experimental period was greater than 40%. Increases in gross CO₂ fluxes were greatest during the summer months, suggesting an interactive effect of land use and climate on ecosystem C cycling. Collectively, our results indicate that long-term management of peatland has marked effects on ecosystem C dynamics and CO₂ flux, which are primarily related to changes in vegetation community structure.     

Increases of Chamber Height and Base Diameter Have Contrasting Effects on Grazing Rate of Two Cladoceran Species: Implications for Microcosm Studies

Aquatic microcosm studies often increase either chamber height or base diameter (to increase water volume) to test spatial ecology theories such as “scale” effects on ecological processes, but it is unclear whether the increase of chamber height or base diameter have the same effect on the processes, i.e., whether the effect of the shape of three-dimensional spaces is significant. We orthogonally manipulated chamber height and base diameter and determined swimming activity, average swimming velocity and grazing rates of the cladocerans Daphnia magna and Moina micrura (on two algae Scenedesmus quadricauda and Chlorella vulgaris; leading to four aquatic algae-cladoceran systems in total) under different microcosm conditions. Across all the four aquatic systems, increasing chamber height at a given base diameter significantly decreased the duration and velocity of horizontal swimming, and it tended to increase the duration but decrease the velocity of vertical swimming. These collectively led to decreases in both average swimming velocity and grazing rate of the cladocerans in the tall chambers (at a given base diameter), in accordance with the positive relationship between average swimming velocity and grazing rate. In contrast, an increase of base diameter at a given chamber height showed contrasting effects on the above parameters. Consistently, at a given chamber volume increasing ratio of chamber height to base diameter decreased the average swimming velocity and grazing rate across all the aquatic systems. In general, increasing chamber depth and base diameter may exert contrasting effects on zooplankton behavior and thus phytoplankton-zooplankton interactions. We suggest that spatial shape plays an important role in determining ecological process and thus should be considered in a theoretical framework of spatial ecology and also the physical setting of aquatic microcosm experiments.     

模拟放牧斑块与氮素添加对半干旱草原群落植物生长的影响(英文)

放牧时,动物采食及其排泄物会影响植物的生长,但动物采食及其排泄物的空间异质性可能会影响这种效应。在位于我国北方典型农牧交错区的内蒙古多伦县,我们研究了模拟放牧斑块和施氮肥对植物生长的影响,实验采用模拟放牧采食斑块(刈割半径分别为0、10、20、40和80 cm)和土壤施氮(分别为0、5、10、20 g N/m2)两种处理,植物地上部收获后分为绿体和立枯两部分,并分析其含氮量。结果表明,刈割降低了植物的生物量(41.5％),而施氮可增加生物量(57.8％)。刈割对植物生长的抑制作用在面积最小又施肥的斑块上表现更明显。土壤施氮可以促进植物生长并且影响刈割效应。同时植物的绿-枯比随施氮水平的增加而增加,因此氮会延迟植物的衰老。以上结果表明,刈割(模拟动物采食)斑块的大小会影响草原植物的生长,土壤施氮(模拟动物尿氮)可以提高草原生态系统的初级生产力,并且影响刈割效应。     

模拟放牧斑块与氮素添加对半干旱草原群落植物生长的影响

放牧时,动物采食及其排泄物会影响植物的生长,但动物彩食及其排泄物的空间异质性可能会影响这咱效应.在位于我国北方典型农牧交错区的内蒙古多伦县,我们研究了模拟入牧斑块和施氧肥对植物生长的影响,实验采用模拟放牧采食斑块(观割半径分别0、10、20、40和8cm)和土壤施氮(分别为0、5、20Gn\m2)两种处理,植物地上部收获后分为绿体和立柯两部分,并分析其含氮量.结果表明,刈割降低了植物的生物量(40.5%),而施氮可增加生物量(57.8%)刈割交通规则植物生长的抑制作用在面积最水又施肥的斑块上表现更明显.土壤施氮可以促进杜物生长并且影响刈割效应.同时植物的绿-枯比阻碍施氮水平的增回而增回,因此氮会延迟植物的衰老.以上结果表明,刈割(模拟动物采食)斑块的大小会影响草原植物的生长,土壤施氮(模拟动物尿氮)可以提高草原生态系统的初级生产力,并影响刈割效应.     

Metabolomics Unravel Contrasting Effects of Biodiversity on the Performance of Individual Plant Species

In spite of evidence for positive diversity-productivity relationships increasing plant diversity has highly variable effects on the performance of individual plant species, but the mechanisms behind these differential responses are far from being understood. To gain deeper insights into the physiological responses of individual plant species to increasing plant diversity we performed systematic untargeted metabolite profiling on a number of herbs derived from a grassland biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment). The Jena Experiment comprises plots of varying species number (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 60) and number and composition of functional groups (1 to 4; grasses, legumes, tall herbs, small herbs). In this study the metabolomes of two tall-growing herbs (legume: Medicago x varia; non-legume: Knautia arvensis) and three small-growing herbs (legume: Lotus corniculatus; non-legumes: Bellis perennis, Leontodon autumnalis) in plant communities of increasing diversity were analyzed. For metabolite profiling we combined gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS) and UPLC coupled to FT-ICR-MS (LC-FT-MS) analyses from the same sample. This resulted in several thousands of detected m/z-features. ANOVA and multivariate statistical analysis revealed 139 significantly changed metabolites (30 by GC-TOF-MS and 109 by LC-FT-MS). The small-statured plants L. autumnalis, B. perennis and L. corniculatus showed metabolic response signatures to increasing plant diversity and species richness in contrast to tall-statured plants. Key-metabolites indicated C- and N-limitation for the non-leguminous small-statured species B. perennis and L. autumnalis, while the metabolic signature of the small-statured legume L. corniculatus indicated facilitation by other legumes. Thus, metabolomic analysis provided evidence for negative effects of resource competition on the investigated small-statured herbs that might mechanistically explain their decreasing performance with increasing plant diversity. In contrast, taller species often becoming dominant in mixed plant communities did not show modified metabolite profiles in response to altered resource availability with increasing plant diversity. Taken together, our study demonstrates that metabolite profiling is a strong diagnostic tool to assess individual metabolic phenotypes in response to plant diversity and ecophysiological adjustment.     

Morphological and phenological differences in Nothofagus pumilio from contrasting elevations: Evidence from a common garden

Abstract We tested the hypothesis that contrasting elevations select distinct growth patterns and vegetative phenology in Nothofagus pumilio, a winter deciduous tree that dominates mountain forests of Patagonia. Analysis of saplings maintained under common‐garden conditions for 4 years showed a significant decrease in shoot annual growth, leaf size, and a delay in bud‐break, and leaf expansion with increased elevation of their site of origin. Rapid gain in height seems to be advantageous at low elevation in such light‐demanding species. Lower stature high‐elevation plants have wider branching angles and greater branching ratios (number of branches/number of internodes) than low‐elevation plants. Compact growth at high elevation may be related to strong winds and irradiance. Plants from different elevations had distinct growth patterns during the common‐garden experiment. This could be of importance in Mediterranean‐climate areas characterized by highly unpredictable precipitation regimes. Also, liberation of growth‐suppressed seedlings may follow different environmental signals in low‐ and high‐habitats, which might explain such time‐dependent responses to optimal conditions under cultivation. While these greenhouse‐grown N. pumilio saplings showed heritable differences in plant architectural traits and leafing phenology, it was not clear how the genotypes characteristic of particular elevations would respond to longer growing seasons such as those predicted under global warming.     

Effects of Warming and Clipping on Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes across Two Hydrologically Contrasting Years in an Alpine Meadow of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Responses of ecosystem carbon (C) fluxes to human disturbance and climatic warming will affect terrestrial ecosystem C storage and feedback to climate change. We conducted a manipulative experiment to investigate the effects of warming and clipping on soil respiration (Rs), ecosystem respiration (ER), net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and gross ecosystem production (GEP) in an alpine meadow in a permafrost region during two hydrologically contrasting years (2012, with 29.9% higher precipitation than the long-term mean, and 2013, with 18.9% lower precipitation than the long-tem mean). Our results showed that GEP was higher than ER, leading to a net C sink (measured by NEE) over the two growing seasons. Warming significantly stimulated ecosystem C fluxes in 2012 but did not significantly affect these fluxes in 2013. On average, the warming-induced increase in GEP (1.49 µ mol m⁻²s⁻¹) was higher than in ER (0.80 µ mol m⁻²s⁻¹), resulting in an increase in NEE (0.70 µ mol m⁻²s⁻¹). Clipping and its interaction with warming had no significant effects on C fluxes, whereas clipping significantly reduced aboveground biomass (AGB) by 51.5 g m⁻² in 2013. These results suggest the response of C fluxes to warming and clipping depends on hydrological variations. In the wet year, the warming treatment caused a reduction in water, but increases in soil temperature and AGB contributed to the positive response of ecosystem C fluxes to warming. In the dry year, the reduction in soil moisture, caused by warming, and the reduction in AGB, caused by clipping, were compensated by higher soil temperatures in warmed plots. Our findings highlight the importance of changes in soil moisture in mediating the responses of ecosystem C fluxes to climate warming in an alpine meadow ecosystem.     

刈牧对草原植物的影响

在草原科学发展的早期 ,人们认识了重要植物的生长营养需要和生活史特性 ,对草原管理基本理论的发展起到了重要作用[1 ] 。此后 ,为了更有效地管理草原和食草家畜 ,以使刈牧对草原植物的有害影响降到最低限度 ,并维持植物和家畜的持续生产 ,人们开始将植物对刈牧响应的知识与不同的过程结合起来。70年代中期 ,随着放牧最优化假设的提出 ,植物 -食草动物相互作用的模拟研究盛况空前[2 ,3] 。这种假设认为最大植物生产力产生于最优的刈牧强度 ,而不是不刈牧的植物。但这种假设在生态学家和自然资源管理学家之间产生了许多分歧[3～ 6] 。此时 ,…