青藏高原植被结构变化反映环境变迁

草地植被结构对于其生产和生态功能至关重要,但大尺度信息严重匮乏.本研究结合多源遥感数据和深度学习,在区域尺度上厘清了青藏高原高寒草地基于群系的植物群落结构空间格局,并比较了其历史变化.过去40年,高寒草甸在高寒草地中的比例从50%上升到69%,反映了变暖变湿的环境变化.此外,高寒草甸和高寒草原中高山嵩草草甸和紫花针茅草原的优势度分别增强到76%和92%.其中,气候因子驱动了紫花针茅草原近些年的分布;高山嵩草草甸近些年的分布则并非完全由气候驱动,人类活动可能起重要作用.本研究首次探索了区域尺度植被结构特征与历史变化,为认识青藏高原草地变化的驱动力及其空间异质性提供了新视角.

高山嵩草植物群落花期物候对增水的响应比对恒定增温和逐步增温的响应更敏感

有研究表明长期观测的植物花期物候变化温度敏感性与野外控制恒定增温试验所得出的花期物候温度敏感性结果不一致,这可能是由于两种观测方法具有不同的增温模式引起的。因为长期观测的气候变暖实际上是气温逐渐升高的情景,而野外控制增温试验所增加的温度是突然增加且每年保持不变。不同的增温模式是否会导致不同的结果目前还缺乏野外试验证据。此外,不同增温模式的效应还受到降水变化的调控。因此,我们于2015–2018年在高寒高山嵩草草甸开展了一项恒定增温(和对照相比,每年保持恒定增温1°C)和逐步增温(和对照相比,2015年增温0.25°C,以后逐年在前一年基础上再增温0.25°C,到2018年相比对照增温1°C)以及与增水(100%/50%)耦合的野外控制试验。研究结果发现,增温模式并没有显著改变群落花期物候。然而,增水显著提前了早花植物和中花植物的初花期,提前了早花植物的末花期,推迟了中花植物的末花期。增水处理并没有显著改变早花植物的开花持续期,但却显著延长了中花植物的开花持续期,进而延长了该群落的开花持续期。增温速率和增水处理并没有显著的交互作用。前一年的干旱会显著抑制第二年该植物群落的现存最大开花数。因此,无论增温模式如何,降水的改变对该高山嵩草植物群落花期物候的影响要大于增温对其的影响。

Warming and grazing enhance litter decomposition and nutrient release independent of litter quality in an alpine meadow

Warming and grazing,and ltter quality jointly determine liter decomposition and nutrient releases in grazing ecosystems.However,their effects have previously been studied in isolation.We conducted a two factorial experiment with asymmetric warming using infrared heaters and moderate grazing in an alpine meadow.Litter samples were collected from all plots in each treatment,among which some subsamples were placed in their original plots and other samples were translocated to other treatment plots to test the relative effects of each treatment on litter decomposition and nutrient releases.We found that warming rather than grazing alone significantly increased total losses of litter mass,total organic carbon,total nitrogen(TN)and total phosphorus(TP)per unit area due to increases in both mass loss rates and ltter biomass.However,grazing with warming did not affect their total mass losses because increased mass loss was offset by decreased litter biomass compared with the control.Seasonal mean soil temperature better predicted litter decomposition than litter lignin content or carbon to nitrogen ratio.There were interactions between warming and grazing,but there were no interactions between them and litter quality on litter decomposition.The temperature sensitivity of TN loss was higher than that of TP loss per unit area.Our results suggest that increased temperature has a greater effect on litter decomposition and nutrient release than change in litter quality,and that more N release from litter could result in greater P deficiency in the alpine meadow.

Responses of biotic interactions of dominant and subordinate species to decadal warming and simulated rotational grazing in Tibetan alpine meadow

Warming increases competition among plant species in alpine communities by ameliorating harsh environmental conditions,such as low temperatures. Grazing, as the main human activity, may mitigate the effect of warming, as previously reported.However, it is critical to refine the effects of warming on biotic interactions among species, for example, by taking the competitive ability of species into consideration. Based on a 10-year warming and grazing experiment in a Tibetan alpine meadow, we evaluated interspecific biotic interactions of dominant and subordinate species, using the approach of interspecific spatial associations. Warming significantly increased competition between subordinate and dominant species as well as among subordinate species, but not among dominant species. Moreover, facilitation of dominant-subordinate species also increased under warming. Simulated rotational grazing had similar effects to warming, with increasing interspecific competition. Our results show that, when studying the effects of warming on biotic interactions among species, it is necessary to characterize different species pairs relative to their competitive ability, and that simulated rotational grazing does not mitigate the effects of warming in the long term. Our results also provide evidence that the spatial pattern of species is a critical mechanism in species coexistence.