Abstract
Purpose
Climate models predict shifts in precipitation patterns characterized by increased precipitation amount and decreased frequency for semi-arid grasslands in northeast China. However, under these novel climatic conditions, potential differences in plant biomass and its allocation among different degraded grasslands remain unclear.
Methods
We conducted a mesocosm experiment to test the effects of higher precipitation amount (increased by 50% from the long-term mean) and lower frequency (decreased by 50%) on plant biomass and allocation in the lightly, moderately, and severely degraded grasslands.
Results
Lower precipitation frequency promoted belowground biomass but reduced aboveground biomass through enhancing soil water variability. Higher precipitation amount enhanced aboveground biomass in the lightly and moderately degraded grasslands, but not in the severely degraded grassland due to lower soil nitrogen availability. Lower precipitation frequency weakened or ended the positive effects of higher precipitation amount on aboveground and belowground biomass, and higher precipitation amount suppressed the enhancement of lower precipitation frequency on belowground biomass, which could be attributed to temporary waterlogging. Plants in the moderately degraded grassland preferred to adjust root vertical distribution, which was impacted by the changes in plant community composition. However, adjustment of aboveground biomass vs. belowground biomass was the primary biomass allocation strategy in the other two grasslands.
Conclusions
Our findings emphasized the importance of considering the degradation level of grasslands when predicting responses of ecosystem functions to the projected changes in precipitation regimes. These findings are critical for making feasible decisions for the sustainable management of degraded grasslands.
Graphical abstract
Legend: + and − indicate positive and negative relationships, respectively
LDG, MDG and SDG-lightly degraded, moderately degraded and severely degraded grasslands, respectively
DPF-decreased precipitation frequency treatment, IPA-increased precipitation amount treatment
SWC and CVSWC-mean and variation of soil water content, respectively
SINC-soil inorganic nitrogen content
AGB and BGB-aboveground and belowground biomass, respectively
fAGB-AGB / total biomass
BGB0–10 (%)-belowground biomass proportion in the 0–10 cm soil layer, \({{{\text{BGB}}_{{0 - 10}} } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{{\text{BGB}}_{{0 - 10}} } {{\text{BGB}}_{{0 - 30}} {\text{~}} \times 100}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {{\text{BGB}}_{{0 - 30}} \times 100}}\)
RAGB-relative aboveground biomass
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Data availability
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Code availability
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Abbreviations
- LDG:
-
Lightly degraded grassland
- MDG:
-
Moderately degraded grassland
- SDG:
-
Severely degraded grassland
- CPF:
-
Control precipitation frequency
- CPA:
-
Control precipitation amount
- DPF:
-
The decreased precipitation frequency treatment
- IPA:
-
The increased precipitation amount treatment
- AGB:
-
Aboveground biomass (g pot−1)
- BGB0–10 :
-
Belowground biomass in the 0–10 cm soil layer (g pot−1)
- BGB10–30 :
-
Belowground biomass in the 10–30 cm soil layer (g pot−1)
- BGB0–30 :
-
Belowground biomass in the 0–30 cm soil layer (g pot−1)
- TB:
-
Total biomass (g pot−1)
- BGB0–10 (%):
-
BGB proportion in the 0–10 cm soil layer (%), \({{{\text{BGB}}_{{0 - 10}} } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{{\text{BGB}}_{{0 - 10}} } {{\text{BGB}}_{{0 - 30}} {\text{~}} \times 100}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {{\text{BGB}}_{{0 - 30}} \times 100}}\)
- f AGB :
-
AGB / TB (%)
- SWC:
-
Mean of soil water content (%)
- CVSWC :
-
Variation of soil water content
- SINC:
-
Soil inorganic content (mg kg−1)
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870456, 32001182), the Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province (YDZJ202101ZYTS004), the Science and Technology Project of the Jilin Provincial Education Department (JJKH20211294KJ) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2412020QD021). We thank Shicheng Jiang, Xiuquan Yue, and Yanan Li for help during laboratory analyses. We would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript.
Funding
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870456, 32001182), the Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province (YDZJ202101ZYTS004), the Science and Technology Project of the Jilin Provincial Education Department (JJKH20211294KJ) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2412020QD021).
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TY-Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing-original draft, Writing-review & editing; JC-Formal analysis, Writing-original draft, Writing-review & editing; XZ-Investigation, Writing-review & editing; XY-Investigation, Writing-review & editing; GW-Investigation, Writing-review & editing; YY-Investigation; WS-Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing-original draft, Writing-review & editing; MS-Writing-review.
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Yang, T., Chen, J., Zhong, X. et al. Divergent responses of plant biomass and its allocation to the altered precipitation regimes among different degraded grasslands in China. Plant Soil 473, 149–166 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-05029-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-05029-1