Pedobiologia ( IF 2.3 ) Pub Date : 2021-02-06 , DOI: 10.1016/j.pedobi.2021.150711 Jianwei Cheng , Frank Yonghong Li , Xinmin Liu , Xinyu Wang , Dong Zhao , Xiangchao Feng , Taogetao Baoyin
The ground-dwelling arthropods is a key component in grassland ecosystem. Many studies have been done on the effects of grazing intensity and grazer species on arthropods in grassland ecosystems, but the information on the effects of grazing timing and frequency are less available. We investigated the abundance of ground-dwelling arthropods in spring, summer and autumn in an experimental steppe grassland that had experienced four grazing management (no-grazed control (T0), June-and-August grazing (T1), July-and-September grazing (T2) and plant growing season grazing (T3)) over four years in central Inner Mongolia. We found that (i) Phytophagous, parasitic and detritivore arthropods were more abundant in autumn than spring, whereas predatory and omnivorous arthropods were less abundant in autumn than spring and summer. (ii) Grazing reduced the abundance of detritivore or predatory arthropods, but not that of omnivorous arthropods. (iii) Grazing had no effects on the relative abundance of different arthropod guilds in spring, but T2 and T3 reduced the relative abundance of detritivore or predatory arthropods, but increased that of omnivorous arthropods in summer. (iv) The variations in the abundance of arthropod guilds was closely associated with the changes in vegetation attributes induced by current-year grazing (height, standing biomass and quality), not by grazing over multiple years (relative biomass of dominant plant species, soil available N and total C:N ratio). Our results provide new insights into the mechanisms of the biological interactions across tropic levels under different management and is helpful to the development of management regimes for steppe ecosystem conservation.
中文翻译:
半干旱草原上节肢动物行会丰富的季节性模式及其对放牧的响应
地面节肢动物是草原生态系统的重要组成部分。关于放牧强度和放牧物种对草地生态系统中节肢动物的影响,已经进行了许多研究,但是关于放牧时间和频率的影响的信息较少。我们在经历了四次放牧管理(无放牧控制(T0),六月和八月放牧(T1),七月和九月)的实验性草原草原上,调查了春季,夏季和秋季的地面节肢动物的数量。内蒙古中部地区放牧(T2)和植物生长季节放牧(T3))。我们发现(i)秋季,食虫性,寄生性和有害性节肢动物比春季更丰富,而秋季的食肉性和杂食性节肢动物比春季和夏季少。(ii)放牧减少了有害的节肢动物或掠食性节肢动物的数量,但减少了杂食性节肢动物的数量。(iii)春季放牧对不同节肢动物行会的相对丰度没有影响,但是T2和T3减少了有害的节肢动物或掠食性节肢动物的相对丰度,但在夏季增加了杂食性节肢动物的相对丰度。(iv)节肢动物行会数量的变化与当年放牧(高度,站立生物量和质量)引起的植被属性变化密切相关,而不是多年放牧(优势植物物种的相对生物量,土壤)有效氮和总C:N比)。