The Experts below are selected from a list of 91197 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Shikui Dong - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
climate change and human activities altered the diversity and composition of soil microbial community in alpine Grasslands of the qinghai tibetan plateau
Science of The Total Environment, 2016Co-Authors: Yong Zhang, Shikui Dong, Shiliang Liu, Qingzhu Gao, Huakun Zhou, Hasbagan Ganjurjav, Xuexia WangAbstract:Alpine ecosystems are known to be sensitive to climate change and human disturbances. however, the knowledge about the changes of their underground microbial communities is inadequate. we explored the diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities using ilumina miseq sequencing in native alpine Grasslands (i.e. the alpine meadow, alpine steppe) and cultivated grassland of the qinghai-tibetan plateau (qtp) under three-year treatments of overgrazing, warming and enhanced rainfall. enhanced rainfall rather than warming significantly reduced soil microbial diversity in native alpine Grasslands. variable warming significantly reduced it in the cultivated grassland. over 20% and 40% variations of microbial diversity could be explained by soil nutrients and moisture in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland, separately. soil microbial communities could be clustered into different groups according to different treatments in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland. for the alpine steppe, with the lowest soil nutrients and moistures, <10% variations of microbial diversity was explained by soil properties; and the soil microbial communities among different treatments were similar. the soil microbial community in the cultivated grassland was varied from it in native Grasslands. over 50% variations of soil microbial communities among different treatments were explained by soil nutrients and moisture in each grassland type. our results suggest that climate change and human activities strongly affected soil microbial communities by changing soil nutrients and moistures in alpine grassland ecosystems. (c) 2016 elsevier b.v. all rights reserved.
-
climate change and human activities altered the diversity and composition of soil microbial community in alpine Grasslands of the qinghai tibetan plateau
Science of The Total Environment, 2016Co-Authors: Yong Zhang, Shikui Dong, Shiliang Liu, Qingzhu Gao, Huakun Zhou, Hasbagan Ganjurjav, Xuexia WangAbstract:Abstract Alpine ecosystems are known to be sensitive to climate change and human disturbances. However, the knowledge about the changes of their underground microbial communities is inadequate. We explored the diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities using Ilumina MiSeq sequencing in native alpine Grasslands (i.e. the alpine meadow, alpine steppe) and cultivated grassland of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) under three-year treatments of overgrazing, warming and enhanced rainfall. Enhanced rainfall rather than warming significantly reduced soil microbial diversity in native alpine Grasslands. Variable warming significantly reduced it in the cultivated grassland. Over 20% and 40% variations of microbial diversity could be explained by soil nutrients and moisture in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland, separately. Soil microbial communities could be clustered into different groups according to different treatments in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland. For the alpine steppe, with the lowest soil nutrients and moistures,
-
reproductive responses of alpine plants to grassland degradation and artificial restoration in the qinghai tibetan plateau
Grass and Forage Science, 2015Co-Authors: Shikui Dong, Xiaohua Wang, Shiliang Liu, Lu Wen, L ZhuAbstract:Artificial grassland establishment has been implemented in the alpine region of Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau in China as a mitigation tool against grassland degradation, one of the major environmental problems in this region. We hypothesized that both grassland degradation and artificial restoration may alter the reproductive modes of the alpine vegetation at the levels of individual species as well as plant functional groups. By investigating a long-term field study of grassland degradation and artificial restoration experiments, we found that alpine plants can maintain a highly plastic relationship between sexual and asexual reproduction, that is, the alpine plants in degraded Grasslands increased their efforts towards sexual reproduction while those in artificially restored Grasslands promoted their efforts in vegetative reproduction with in the year after restoration. The high reproductive plasticity of the alpine plants can be regulated through a number of mechanisms, which include changing proportion of clonal species in the plant composition, altering number ratio of sexual and vegetative propagules, shifting biomass allocation for sexual and vegetative reproduction at both individual species and functional group levels. These conclusions demonstrate how crucial it is to consider manipulation of reproductive modes needed to restore the structure and stability of degraded alpine Grasslands.
-
a comparison of biodiversity ecosystem function relationships in alpine Grasslands across a degradation gradient on the qinghai tibetan plateau
Rangeland Journal, 2015Co-Authors: Xuexia Wang, Shikui Dong, Ruth Sherman, Quanru Liu, Shiliang LiuAbstract:To examine biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships in alpine Grasslands of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, we compared differences in plant species and functional group diversity (sedges, grasses, legumes and non-leguminous forbs) to aboveground biomass, soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools and soil loss in five sites that ranged from healthy to severely degraded Grasslands. Plant diversity decreased from 36 species in the healthy grassland to 15 species in the severely degraded grassland, and the plant functional groups changed from predominantly grasses and sedges to mostly forbs as the level of degradation increased. Plant biomass and soil pools of C and N decreased whereas soil loss and the amount of bare ground increased across the degradation gradient from healthy to severely degraded Grasslands. Simple linear regressions showed strong positive relationships between species diversity and aboveground biomass of sedges, grasses and legumes and between soil C and N pools, but negative relationships between species diversity and non-leguminous forbs and soil loss. Our results provide strong evidence that plant diversity in Grasslands on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau is positively related to primary productivity, C and N storage in soils and soil conservation, and that grassland degradation is impairing ecosystem function resulting in a loss in ecosystem services.
Xuexia Wang - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
climate change and human activities altered the diversity and composition of soil microbial community in alpine Grasslands of the qinghai tibetan plateau
Science of The Total Environment, 2016Co-Authors: Yong Zhang, Shikui Dong, Shiliang Liu, Qingzhu Gao, Huakun Zhou, Hasbagan Ganjurjav, Xuexia WangAbstract:Alpine ecosystems are known to be sensitive to climate change and human disturbances. however, the knowledge about the changes of their underground microbial communities is inadequate. we explored the diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities using ilumina miseq sequencing in native alpine Grasslands (i.e. the alpine meadow, alpine steppe) and cultivated grassland of the qinghai-tibetan plateau (qtp) under three-year treatments of overgrazing, warming and enhanced rainfall. enhanced rainfall rather than warming significantly reduced soil microbial diversity in native alpine Grasslands. variable warming significantly reduced it in the cultivated grassland. over 20% and 40% variations of microbial diversity could be explained by soil nutrients and moisture in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland, separately. soil microbial communities could be clustered into different groups according to different treatments in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland. for the alpine steppe, with the lowest soil nutrients and moistures, <10% variations of microbial diversity was explained by soil properties; and the soil microbial communities among different treatments were similar. the soil microbial community in the cultivated grassland was varied from it in native Grasslands. over 50% variations of soil microbial communities among different treatments were explained by soil nutrients and moisture in each grassland type. our results suggest that climate change and human activities strongly affected soil microbial communities by changing soil nutrients and moistures in alpine grassland ecosystems. (c) 2016 elsevier b.v. all rights reserved.
-
climate change and human activities altered the diversity and composition of soil microbial community in alpine Grasslands of the qinghai tibetan plateau
Science of The Total Environment, 2016Co-Authors: Yong Zhang, Shikui Dong, Shiliang Liu, Qingzhu Gao, Huakun Zhou, Hasbagan Ganjurjav, Xuexia WangAbstract:Abstract Alpine ecosystems are known to be sensitive to climate change and human disturbances. However, the knowledge about the changes of their underground microbial communities is inadequate. We explored the diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities using Ilumina MiSeq sequencing in native alpine Grasslands (i.e. the alpine meadow, alpine steppe) and cultivated grassland of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) under three-year treatments of overgrazing, warming and enhanced rainfall. Enhanced rainfall rather than warming significantly reduced soil microbial diversity in native alpine Grasslands. Variable warming significantly reduced it in the cultivated grassland. Over 20% and 40% variations of microbial diversity could be explained by soil nutrients and moisture in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland, separately. Soil microbial communities could be clustered into different groups according to different treatments in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland. For the alpine steppe, with the lowest soil nutrients and moistures,
-
a comparison of biodiversity ecosystem function relationships in alpine Grasslands across a degradation gradient on the qinghai tibetan plateau
Rangeland Journal, 2015Co-Authors: Xuexia Wang, Shikui Dong, Ruth Sherman, Quanru Liu, Shiliang LiuAbstract:To examine biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships in alpine Grasslands of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, we compared differences in plant species and functional group diversity (sedges, grasses, legumes and non-leguminous forbs) to aboveground biomass, soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools and soil loss in five sites that ranged from healthy to severely degraded Grasslands. Plant diversity decreased from 36 species in the healthy grassland to 15 species in the severely degraded grassland, and the plant functional groups changed from predominantly grasses and sedges to mostly forbs as the level of degradation increased. Plant biomass and soil pools of C and N decreased whereas soil loss and the amount of bare ground increased across the degradation gradient from healthy to severely degraded Grasslands. Simple linear regressions showed strong positive relationships between species diversity and aboveground biomass of sedges, grasses and legumes and between soil C and N pools, but negative relationships between species diversity and non-leguminous forbs and soil loss. Our results provide strong evidence that plant diversity in Grasslands on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau is positively related to primary productivity, C and N storage in soils and soil conservation, and that grassland degradation is impairing ecosystem function resulting in a loss in ecosystem services.
Shiliang Liu - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
climate change and human activities altered the diversity and composition of soil microbial community in alpine Grasslands of the qinghai tibetan plateau
Science of The Total Environment, 2016Co-Authors: Yong Zhang, Shikui Dong, Shiliang Liu, Qingzhu Gao, Huakun Zhou, Hasbagan Ganjurjav, Xuexia WangAbstract:Alpine ecosystems are known to be sensitive to climate change and human disturbances. however, the knowledge about the changes of their underground microbial communities is inadequate. we explored the diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities using ilumina miseq sequencing in native alpine Grasslands (i.e. the alpine meadow, alpine steppe) and cultivated grassland of the qinghai-tibetan plateau (qtp) under three-year treatments of overgrazing, warming and enhanced rainfall. enhanced rainfall rather than warming significantly reduced soil microbial diversity in native alpine Grasslands. variable warming significantly reduced it in the cultivated grassland. over 20% and 40% variations of microbial diversity could be explained by soil nutrients and moisture in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland, separately. soil microbial communities could be clustered into different groups according to different treatments in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland. for the alpine steppe, with the lowest soil nutrients and moistures, <10% variations of microbial diversity was explained by soil properties; and the soil microbial communities among different treatments were similar. the soil microbial community in the cultivated grassland was varied from it in native Grasslands. over 50% variations of soil microbial communities among different treatments were explained by soil nutrients and moisture in each grassland type. our results suggest that climate change and human activities strongly affected soil microbial communities by changing soil nutrients and moistures in alpine grassland ecosystems. (c) 2016 elsevier b.v. all rights reserved.
-
climate change and human activities altered the diversity and composition of soil microbial community in alpine Grasslands of the qinghai tibetan plateau
Science of The Total Environment, 2016Co-Authors: Yong Zhang, Shikui Dong, Shiliang Liu, Qingzhu Gao, Huakun Zhou, Hasbagan Ganjurjav, Xuexia WangAbstract:Abstract Alpine ecosystems are known to be sensitive to climate change and human disturbances. However, the knowledge about the changes of their underground microbial communities is inadequate. We explored the diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities using Ilumina MiSeq sequencing in native alpine Grasslands (i.e. the alpine meadow, alpine steppe) and cultivated grassland of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) under three-year treatments of overgrazing, warming and enhanced rainfall. Enhanced rainfall rather than warming significantly reduced soil microbial diversity in native alpine Grasslands. Variable warming significantly reduced it in the cultivated grassland. Over 20% and 40% variations of microbial diversity could be explained by soil nutrients and moisture in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland, separately. Soil microbial communities could be clustered into different groups according to different treatments in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland. For the alpine steppe, with the lowest soil nutrients and moistures,
-
reproductive responses of alpine plants to grassland degradation and artificial restoration in the qinghai tibetan plateau
Grass and Forage Science, 2015Co-Authors: Shikui Dong, Xiaohua Wang, Shiliang Liu, Lu Wen, L ZhuAbstract:Artificial grassland establishment has been implemented in the alpine region of Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau in China as a mitigation tool against grassland degradation, one of the major environmental problems in this region. We hypothesized that both grassland degradation and artificial restoration may alter the reproductive modes of the alpine vegetation at the levels of individual species as well as plant functional groups. By investigating a long-term field study of grassland degradation and artificial restoration experiments, we found that alpine plants can maintain a highly plastic relationship between sexual and asexual reproduction, that is, the alpine plants in degraded Grasslands increased their efforts towards sexual reproduction while those in artificially restored Grasslands promoted their efforts in vegetative reproduction with in the year after restoration. The high reproductive plasticity of the alpine plants can be regulated through a number of mechanisms, which include changing proportion of clonal species in the plant composition, altering number ratio of sexual and vegetative propagules, shifting biomass allocation for sexual and vegetative reproduction at both individual species and functional group levels. These conclusions demonstrate how crucial it is to consider manipulation of reproductive modes needed to restore the structure and stability of degraded alpine Grasslands.
-
a comparison of biodiversity ecosystem function relationships in alpine Grasslands across a degradation gradient on the qinghai tibetan plateau
Rangeland Journal, 2015Co-Authors: Xuexia Wang, Shikui Dong, Ruth Sherman, Quanru Liu, Shiliang LiuAbstract:To examine biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships in alpine Grasslands of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, we compared differences in plant species and functional group diversity (sedges, grasses, legumes and non-leguminous forbs) to aboveground biomass, soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools and soil loss in five sites that ranged from healthy to severely degraded Grasslands. Plant diversity decreased from 36 species in the healthy grassland to 15 species in the severely degraded grassland, and the plant functional groups changed from predominantly grasses and sedges to mostly forbs as the level of degradation increased. Plant biomass and soil pools of C and N decreased whereas soil loss and the amount of bare ground increased across the degradation gradient from healthy to severely degraded Grasslands. Simple linear regressions showed strong positive relationships between species diversity and aboveground biomass of sedges, grasses and legumes and between soil C and N pools, but negative relationships between species diversity and non-leguminous forbs and soil loss. Our results provide strong evidence that plant diversity in Grasslands on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau is positively related to primary productivity, C and N storage in soils and soil conservation, and that grassland degradation is impairing ecosystem function resulting in a loss in ecosystem services.
Yong Zhang - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
climate change and human activities altered the diversity and composition of soil microbial community in alpine Grasslands of the qinghai tibetan plateau
Science of The Total Environment, 2016Co-Authors: Yong Zhang, Shikui Dong, Shiliang Liu, Qingzhu Gao, Huakun Zhou, Hasbagan Ganjurjav, Xuexia WangAbstract:Alpine ecosystems are known to be sensitive to climate change and human disturbances. however, the knowledge about the changes of their underground microbial communities is inadequate. we explored the diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities using ilumina miseq sequencing in native alpine Grasslands (i.e. the alpine meadow, alpine steppe) and cultivated grassland of the qinghai-tibetan plateau (qtp) under three-year treatments of overgrazing, warming and enhanced rainfall. enhanced rainfall rather than warming significantly reduced soil microbial diversity in native alpine Grasslands. variable warming significantly reduced it in the cultivated grassland. over 20% and 40% variations of microbial diversity could be explained by soil nutrients and moisture in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland, separately. soil microbial communities could be clustered into different groups according to different treatments in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland. for the alpine steppe, with the lowest soil nutrients and moistures, <10% variations of microbial diversity was explained by soil properties; and the soil microbial communities among different treatments were similar. the soil microbial community in the cultivated grassland was varied from it in native Grasslands. over 50% variations of soil microbial communities among different treatments were explained by soil nutrients and moisture in each grassland type. our results suggest that climate change and human activities strongly affected soil microbial communities by changing soil nutrients and moistures in alpine grassland ecosystems. (c) 2016 elsevier b.v. all rights reserved.
-
climate change and human activities altered the diversity and composition of soil microbial community in alpine Grasslands of the qinghai tibetan plateau
Science of The Total Environment, 2016Co-Authors: Yong Zhang, Shikui Dong, Shiliang Liu, Qingzhu Gao, Huakun Zhou, Hasbagan Ganjurjav, Xuexia WangAbstract:Abstract Alpine ecosystems are known to be sensitive to climate change and human disturbances. However, the knowledge about the changes of their underground microbial communities is inadequate. We explored the diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities using Ilumina MiSeq sequencing in native alpine Grasslands (i.e. the alpine meadow, alpine steppe) and cultivated grassland of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) under three-year treatments of overgrazing, warming and enhanced rainfall. Enhanced rainfall rather than warming significantly reduced soil microbial diversity in native alpine Grasslands. Variable warming significantly reduced it in the cultivated grassland. Over 20% and 40% variations of microbial diversity could be explained by soil nutrients and moisture in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland, separately. Soil microbial communities could be clustered into different groups according to different treatments in the alpine meadow and cultivated grassland. For the alpine steppe, with the lowest soil nutrients and moistures,
Vincent Chaplot - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
overgrazing decreases soil organic carbon stocks the most under dry climates and low soil ph a meta analysis shows
Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 2016Co-Authors: Phesheya Dlamini, Pauline Chivenge, Vincent ChaplotAbstract:Grasslands occupy about 40% of the world’s land surface and store approximately 10% of the global soil organic carbon (SOC) stock. This SOC pool, in which a larger proportion is held in the topsoil (0–0.3 m), is strongly influenced by grassland management. Despite this, it is not yet fully understood how grassland SOC stocks respond to degradation, particularly for the different environmental conditions found globally. The objective of this review was to elucidate the impact of grassland degradation on changes in SOC stocks and the main environmental controls, worldwide, as a prerequisite for rehabilitation. A comprehensive meta-analysis was conducted using 55 studies with 628 soil profiles under temperate, humid, sub-humid, tropical and semi-arid conditions, to compare SOC stocks in the topsoil of non-degraded and degraded grassland soils. Grassland degradation significantly reduced SOC stocks by 16% in dry climates ( 1000 mm) and Asia was the most affected continent (−23.7%). Moreover, the depletion of SOC stock induced by degradation was more pronounced in sandy (<20% clay) soils with a high SOC depletion of 10% compared to 1% in clayey (≥32% clay) soils. Furthermore, grassland degradation significantly reduced SOC by 14% in acidic soils (pH ≤ 5), while SOC changes were negligible for higher pH. Assuming that 30% of Grasslands worldwide are degraded, the amount of SOC likely to be lost would be 4.05 Gt C, with a 95% confidence between 1.8 and 6.3 Gt C (i.e. from 1.2 to 4.2% of the whole grassland soil stock). These results by pointing to greater SOC losses from Grasslands under dry climates and sandy acidic soils allow identification of grassland soils for which SOC stocks are the most vulnerable, while also informing on rehabilitation measures.
