Elevational patterns of warming effects on plant community and topsoil properties: focus on subalpine meadows ecosystem

Climate warming profoundly affects plant biodiversity, community productivity, and soil properties in alpine and subalpine grassland ecosystems. However, these effects are poorly understood across elevational gradients in subalpine meadow ecosystems. To reveal the elevational patterns of warming effects on plant biodiversity, community structure, productivity, and soil properties, we conducted a warming experiment using open-top chambers from August 2019 to August 2022 at high(2764 m a. s. l.), medium(2631 m a. s. l.), and low(2544 m a. s. l.) elevational gradients on a subalpine meadow slope of Mount Wutai, Northern China. Our results showed that three years of warming significantly increased topsoil temperature but significantly decreased topsoil moisture at all elevations(P<0.05), and the percentage of increasing temperature and decreasing moisture both gradually raised with elevation lifting. Warming-induced decreasing proportions of soil organic carbon(SOC, by 19.24%), and total nitrogen(TN, by 24.56%) were the greatest at high elevational gradients. Experimental warming did not affect topsoil C: N, p H, NO_(3)^(-)-N, or NH_(4)^(+)-N at the three elevational gradients. Warming significantly increased species richness(P<0.01) and Shannon-Weiner index(P<0.05) at low elevational gradients but significantly decreased belowground biomass(P<0.05) at a depth of 0–10 cm at three elevational gradients. Warming caused significant increases in the aboveground biomass in the three elevational plots. Warming significantly increased the aboveground biomass of graminoids in medium(by 92.47%) and low(by 98.25%) elevational gradients, that of sedges in high(by 72.44%) and medium(by 57.16%) elevational plots, and that of forbs in high(by 75.88%), medium(by 34.38%), and low(by 74.95%) elevational plots. Species richness had significant linear correlations with SOC, TN, and C: N(P<0.05), but significant nonlinear responses to soil temperature and soil moisture in the warmed treatment(P<0.05). The warmed aboveground biomass had a significant nonlinear response to soil temperature and significant linear responses to soil moisture(P<0.05). This study provided evidence that altitude is a factor in sensitivity to climate warming, and these different parameters(e.g., plant species richness, Shannon-Weiner index, soil temperature, soil moisture, SOC, and TN) can be used to measure this sensitivity.

Community structure and spatial-temporal variation of netzphytoplankton in the Bering Sea in summer

Marine biodiversity is changing in response to altered physical environment, subsequent ecological changes as well as anthropogenic disturbances. In this study, phytoplankton samples in situ collected in the Bering Sea in July of 1999 and 2010 were analyzed to obtain phytoplankton community structure and spatial-temporal variation between the beginning and end of this decade, and the correlation of phytoplankton community dynamics and environmental factors was investigated. A total of 5 divisions, 58 genera and 153 species of phytoplankton belonging to 3 ecological groups were identified. The vast majority of phytoplankton consisted of diatoms accounting for 66.7% of the total species and 95.2% of the total abundance. Considering differentiation in spatial extent and phytoplankton sample types, there were subtle changes in species composition, large altering in abundance and significant variation in spatial distribution between two surveys. The abundance peak area was located at the Bering Strait while sub peak was found at the Bering Sea Basin. The boreal-temperate diatom was the dominant flora, which was subsequently replaced by eurythermal and frigid-water diatom. Phytoplankton community in the Bering Sea was not a simplex uniform community but composed of deep-ocean assemblage and neritic assemblage. The deep-ocean assemblage was located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea Basin, dominated by boreal-temperate species（Neodenticula seminae, Thalassiothrix longissima, Amphiprora hyperborean, Chaetoceros atlanticus, Thalassiosira trifulta, etc.） and eurychoric species（Thalassionema nitzschioides, Ch. compressus, Rhizosolenia styliformis, etc.）, and characterized by low abundance, even interspecies abundance allocations, diverse dominant species and high species diversity. The neritic assemblage was distributed on the continental shelf and slope of Bering Sea and was mainly composed of frigid-water species（Th.nordenski？ldii, Ch. furcellatus, Ch. socialis, Bacteriosira fragilis, etc.） and eurythermal and euryhaline species（L.danicus, Ch. curvisetus, Coscinodiscus curvatulus, etc.）, and it was characterized by high abundance, uneven interspecies allocations, prominent dominant species and low species diversity. Spatial-temporal variation of species composition and abundance of phytoplankton in the Bering Sea was directly controlled by surface circulation,nutrient supply and ice edge.