青藏高原高寒草地退化与人工恢复过程中植物群落的繁殖适应对策

以三江源区不同退化程度高寒草甸和不同恢复年限人工草地作为研究对象,通过野外调查与采样、实验室分析,探究了高寒地区退化天然草地与人工恢复草地的植被群落繁殖构件数量变化.结果表明:在群落水平上,天然草地退化和人工草地建植会对植物繁殖构件的数量和生物量产生影响.随着天然草地退化程度的增加,营养枝数量和生物量则明显下降,而繁殖枝的数量和生物量明显升高(P＜0.05);随着人工草地恢复年限的增加,营养枝的数量和生物量逐渐增加,而繁殖枝的数量和生物量则逐渐降低(P＜0.05);随着恢复年限的增加,人工草地繁殖构件的变化逐渐接近未退化天然草地.在功能群水平上,植物繁殖构件数量亦随草地退化程度和人工恢复年限而变化.随着恢复年限的增加,禾本科、莎草科、杂类草的营养枝数量和生物量均呈现显著增加(P＜0.05),而繁殖枝数量和生物量则显著下降,禾本科的繁殖构件数量远远大于莎草科和杂类草;随着退化程度的增加,三大功能群的营养枝枝数和生物量显著增加(P＜0.05),而繁殖枝则呈现相反的趋势.实证了草地退化和人工恢复改变植物群落繁殖分配对策的科学假设,为高寒草地植被恢复重建技术的发展和更新提供理论支撑.     

青藏高原长花马先蒿的细胞地理学研究

对青藏高原长花马先蒿9个居群的核型及细胞地理学进行研究,所有居群的染色体数目均为2n=16,染色体基数为x=8。现有的细胞学资料表明:分布于云南中甸的居群可能为较原始的类群,而分布于西藏日土和青海门源的居群较为进化。长花马先蒿的9个居群均为二倍体,并未出现多倍化现象,可能是由于在末次冰期青藏高原存在广泛的避难所,二倍体得到很好的保存,冰期对它们的影响不是很大; 也可能是对环境的选择压力造成的。     

黄芪对缺氧小鼠抗运动疲劳作用的效果研究

目的:黄芪是一种传统的提高身体各项机能的中药,本研究旨在探讨黄芪在高原缺氧环境下对运动小鼠疲劳缓解的效果.方法:雄性昆明种小鼠,随机分为对照组和黄芪高、中、低3个剂量组(30.0,3.0,1.0 g/kg),平原对照组在平原环境下饲养,缺氧小鼠在模拟5000m高原环境中饲养,每天灌胃给药,10d后在缺氧环境下进行游泳力竭实验,观察小鼠游泳力竭时间,同时检测血乳酸、血糖、肝糖原以及血清SOD活性和肝脏MDA等指标的变化.结果:与空白对照组比较,黄芪各剂量组可明显提高缺氧小鼠力竭游泳时间(P＜0.05),减少血乳酸曲线下面积(P＜0.05);黄芪高、中剂量组肝糖原显著增加(P＜0.05),力竭游泳后血糖明显升高(P＜0.05),SOD活性升高(P＜0.05),MDA降低(P＜0.05).结论:黄芪可显著缓解高原低氧小鼠的运动疲劳,具有明显的抗高原疲劳效果,具有进一步研究的价值.     

A Miocene leaf fossil record of Rosa (R. fortuita n. sp.) from its modern diversity center in SW China

Roses (Rosa, Rosaceae) are arguably the most admired ornamental plants in the world. Southwestern China is the center of diversity for many extant native species of Rosa and fossils found in this region are critical for understanding the evolution of this genus. Herein, we report a leaf fossil record with good preservation from the late Miocene of Yunnan Province. The opposite and odd-pinnate leaf is composed of seven elliptical leaflets, with close, crenulate, and regular marginal teeth. The stipules are lanceolate and adnate to the petiole. Additionally, the secondary veins are semicraspedodromous, showing the same venation pattern as most living Rosa species in southwestern China. On the basis of the extensive morphological comparisons, we propose a new species, R. fortuita T. Su et Z.K. Zhou n. sp. This is the first confirmed Rosa leaf fossil record in China, and the discovery of R. fortuita n. sp. indicates that Rosa existed in southwestern China by the late Miocene. It suggests that Rosa was distributed in subtropical or temperate forests and shared a similar ecological niche as Rosa in Europe during the Oligocene and Miocene. The modern diversification of Rosa in southwestern China is thought to have been closely associated with the continuous uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau since the late Miocene, creating complex topography and a variety of climate conditions.     

Leaf meristems: an easily ignored component of the response to human disturbance in alpine grasslands

Grazing and fencing are two important factors that influence productivity and biomass allocation in alpine grasslands. The relationship between root (R) and shoot (S) biomass and the root:shoot ratio (R/S) are critical parameters for estimating the terrestrial carbon stocks and biomass allocation mechanism responses to human activities. Previous studies have often used the belowground:aboveground biomass ratio (M_b/M_a) to replace the R/S in alpine ecosystems. However, these studies may have neglected the leaf meristem biomass, which belongs to the shoot but occurs below the soil surface, leading to a significant overestimation of the R/S ratio. We conducted a comparative study to explore the differences between the R/S and M_b/M_a at both the species (Stipa purpurea, Carex moorcroftii, and Artemisia nanschanica) and community levels on a Tibetan alpine grassland with grazing and fencing management blocks. The results revealed that the use of the M_b/M_a to express the R/S appeared to overestimate the actual value of the R/S, both at species and community levels. For S. purpurea, the M_b/M_a was three times higher than the R/S. The M_b/M_a was approximately two times higher than the R/S for the species of C. moorcroftii and A. nanschanica and at the community level. The relationships between the R‐S and M_b‐M_a exhibited different slopes for the alpine plants across all the management practices. Compared to the fenced grasslands, the plants in the grazing blocks not only allocated more biomass to the roots but also to the leaf meristems. The present study highlights the contribution of leaf meristems to the accurate assessment of shoot and belowground biomasses. The R/S and M_b/M_a should be cautiously used in combination in the future research. The understanding of the distinction between the R‐S and M_b‐M_a may help to improve the biomass allocation mechanism response to human disturbances in an alpine area.     

A modified framework for the regional assessment of climate and human impacts on net primary productivity

Improving models that depict the components of net primary production (NPP) in ecosystems will help us to better understand how climate change and human activities affect the biosphere. In this study, NPP_gap was introduced into the present human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) framework. We introduced NPP_gap in this study as potential NPP (NPP_pot) minus the sum of ecosystem NPP (NPP_eco) and HANPP, which relates to the ability of models to depict NPP components. Using the Lhasa River region of the Tibetan Plateau, we examined temporal and spatial variations in the components of NPP over a 10-year period. Results showed that NPP_pot, HANPP and NPP_eco increased from 2000 to 2010, but at different rates and with different spatial patterns. NPP_gap each year ranged from −9.2% to 13.1% for each site and on average composed 1.2% of the total NPP_pot. NPP_gap was significantly correlated with precipitation, plant biodiversity, plant height and soil properties. NPP_gap increased if either of the previous 2 years had been wet years with relative high precipitation. An increase in the richness of palatable species would lead to a larger NPP_gap through more compensatory growth. The large fluctuation level of NPP_gap reflected the higher stability of vegetation productivity, which is caused by higher plant heights and soil maximum water capacity. This study showed the potential of the HANPP framework in regional assessment of climate and human impacts on net primary productivity. The use of the NPP_gap measure reflects the gap in our knowledge and our ability to accurately estimate the components of NPP.     

Comparison of boosted regression tree and random forest models for mapping topsoil organic carbon concentration in an alpine ecosystem

Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays an important role in soil fertility and carbon sequestration, and a better understanding of the spatial patterns of SOC is essential for soil resource management. In this study, we used boosted regression tree (BRT) and random forest (RF) models to map the distribution of topsoil organic carbon content at the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in China. A set of 105 soil samples and 12 environmental variables (including topography, climate and vegetation) were analyzed. The performance of the models was evaluated using a 10-fold cross-validation procedure. Maps of the mean values and standard deviations of SOC were generated to illustrate model variability and uncertainty. The results indicate that the BRT and RF models exhibited very similar performance and yielded similar predicted distributions of SOC. The two models explained approximately 70% of the total SOC variability. The BRT and RF models robustly predicted the SOC at low observed SOC values, whereas they underestimated high observed SOC values. This underestimation may have been caused by biased distributions of soil samples in the SOC space. Vegetation-related variables were assigned the highest importance in both models, followed by climate and topography. Both models produced spatial distribution maps of SOC that were closely related to vegetation cover. The SOC content predicted by the BRT model was clearly higher than that of the RF model in areas with greater vegetation cover because the contributions of vegetation-related variables in the two models (65% and 43%, respectively) differed significantly. The predicted SOC content increased from the northwestern to the southeastern part of the study area, average values produced by the BRT and RF models were 27.3 g kg⁻¹ and 26.6 g kg⁻¹, respectively. We conclude that the BRT and RF methods should be calibrated and compared to obtain the best prediction of SOC spatial distribution in similar regions. In addition, vegetation variables, including those obtained from remote sensing imagery, should be taken as the main environmental indicators and explicitly included when generating SOC maps in Alpine environments.     

Carbon storage and potentials of the broad-leaved forest in alpine region of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau,China北大核心CSCD

Aims Our objective was to explore the vegetation carbon storages and their variations in the broad-leaved forests in the alpine region of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau that includes Qinghai Province and Xizang Autonomous Region. Methods Based on forest resource inventory data and field sampling, this paper studied the carbon storage, its sequestration rate, and the potentials in the broad-leaved forests in the alpine region of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. Important findings The vegetation carbon storage in the broad-leaved forest accounted for 310.70 Tg in 2011, with the highest value in the broad-leaved mixed forest and the lowest in Populus forest among the six broad-leaved forests that include Quercus, Betula, Populus, other hard broad-leaved species, other soft broad-leaved species, and the broadleaved mixed forest. The carbon density of the broad-leaved forest was 89.04 Mg•hm2, with the highest value in other hard broad-leaved species forest and the lowest in other soft broad-leaved species forest. The carbon storage and carbon density in different layers of the forests followed a sequence of overstory layer > understory layer > litter layer > grass layer > dead wood layer, which all increased with forest age. In addition, the carbon storage of broad-leaved forest increased from 304.26 Tg in 2001 to 310.70 Tg in 2011. The mean annual carbon sequestration and its rate were 0.64 Tg•a1 and 0.19 Mg•hm2•a1, respectively. The maximum and minimum of the carbon sequestration rate were respectively found in other soft broad-leaved species forest and other hard broad-leaved species forest, with the highest value in the mature forest and the lowest in the young forest. Moreover, the carbon sequestration potential in the tree layer of broad-leaved forest reached 19.09 Mg•hm2 in 2011, with the highest value found in Quercus forest and the lowest in Betula forest. The carbon storage increased gradually during three inventory periods, indicating that the broad-leaved forest was well protected to maintain a healthy growth by the forest protection project of Qinghai Province and Xizang Autonomous Region.     

Effects of experimental warming on plant reproductive phenology in Xizang alpine meadow北大核心CSCD

Aims: Climate warming strongly influences reproductive phenology of plants in alpine and arctic ecosystems. Here we focus on phenological shifts caused by warming in a typical alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. Our objective was to explore phenological responses of alpine plant species to experimental warming. Methods: Passive warming was achieved using open-top chambers (OTCs). The treatments included control (C), and four levels of warming (T1, T2, T3, T4). We selected Kobresia pygmaea, Potentilla saundersiana, Potentilla cuneata, Stipa purpurea, Festuca coelestis and Youngia simulatrix as the focal species. Plant phenology was scored every 3-5 days in the growing season. The reproductive phenology phases of each species were estimated through fitting the phenological scores to the Richards function. Important findings: Under soil water stress caused by warming, most plants in the alpine meadow advanced or delayed their reproductive events. As a result, warming significantly delayed phenological development of K. pygmaea. Warming significantly advanced reproductive phenology of P. saundersiana, S. purpurea and F. coelestis, but not of P. cuneata and Y. simulatrix. In addition, warming significantly shortened the average flowering duration of alpine plant species. The potentially warmer and drier growing seasons under climate change may shift the reproductive phenology of the alpine systems in similar pattern.