Protected areas(PAs) have experienced explosive growth in Northwest China over the last three decades, but their effectiveness in representing regional ecological system diversity has not attracted considerable attent...Protected areas(PAs) have experienced explosive growth in Northwest China over the last three decades, but their effectiveness in representing regional ecological system diversity has not attracted considerable attention. Low effectiveness would exacerbate the conservation-development conflicts, particularly those that arise as a result of the Great Western Development Strategy(GWDS). Thus, an assessment of the effectiveness of the PA network has become quite important. We proposed natural vegetation communities to represent regional ecological system diversities, and proposed Global 200 Priority Ecoregions, Important Bird Areas, and ecosystem function regions to represent important conservation areas. To determine their effectiveness, we studied the extent to which ecological system diversities and important conservation areas are represented by the existing 96 PAs. Our results indicated that the total coverage of vegetation communities in PAs in Northwest China is not sufficiently comprehensive. As the PA system has expanded, the growth in the total area of the PAs has been greater than that of their vegetation community richness. While most of the important conservation areas are covered by PAs, some regions have not yet reached the 10% threshold; further, PAs are distributed unevenly and conservation gaps remain in the region. Therefore, these regions should receive more attention when planning new PAs. It is vital that more biodiversity datasets and assessment of ecosystem function regions are integrated in order to provide a basis for the government to formulate appropriate protection and development strategies.展开更多
Aims Climate warming and increasing nitrogen(N)deposition have influenced plant nutrient status and thus plant carbon(C)fixation and vegetation composition in boreal peatlands.Phenols,which are secondary metabolites i...Aims Climate warming and increasing nitrogen(N)deposition have influenced plant nutrient status and thus plant carbon(C)fixation and vegetation composition in boreal peatlands.Phenols,which are secondary metabolites in plants for defense and adaptation,also play important roles in regulating peatland C dynamics due to their anti-decomposition properties.However,how the phenolic levels of different functional types of plants vary depending on nutrient availability remain unclear in boreal peatlands.Methods Here,we investigated total phenols contents(TPC)and total tannins contents in leaves of 11 plant species in 18 peatlands of the Great Hing’an Mountains area in northeastern China,and examined their variations with leaf N and phosphorus(P)and underlying mechanisms.Important Findings Shrubs had higher TPC than graminoids,indicating less C allocation to defense and less uptake of organic N in faster-growing and nonmycorrhizal graminoids than in slower-growing and mycorrhizal shrubs.For shrubs,leaf TPC decreased with increasing N contents but was not influenced by changing leaf phosphorus(P)contents,which suggested that shrubs would reduce the C investment for defense with increasing N availability.Differently,leaf TPC of graminoids increased with leaf N contents and decreased with leaf P contents.As graminoids are more N-limited and less P-limited,we inferred that graminoids would increase the defensive C investment under increased nutrient availability.We concluded that shrubs would invest more C in growth than in defense with increasing N availability,but it was just opposite for graminoids,which might be an important mechanism to explain the resource competition and encroachment of shrubs in boreal peatlands in the context of climate warming and ever-increasing N deposition.展开更多
基金Under the auspices of National Science&Technology Pillar Program During the Twelfth Five-year Plan Period(No.2011BAC09B08)
文摘Protected areas(PAs) have experienced explosive growth in Northwest China over the last three decades, but their effectiveness in representing regional ecological system diversity has not attracted considerable attention. Low effectiveness would exacerbate the conservation-development conflicts, particularly those that arise as a result of the Great Western Development Strategy(GWDS). Thus, an assessment of the effectiveness of the PA network has become quite important. We proposed natural vegetation communities to represent regional ecological system diversities, and proposed Global 200 Priority Ecoregions, Important Bird Areas, and ecosystem function regions to represent important conservation areas. To determine their effectiveness, we studied the extent to which ecological system diversities and important conservation areas are represented by the existing 96 PAs. Our results indicated that the total coverage of vegetation communities in PAs in Northwest China is not sufficiently comprehensive. As the PA system has expanded, the growth in the total area of the PAs has been greater than that of their vegetation community richness. While most of the important conservation areas are covered by PAs, some regions have not yet reached the 10% threshold; further, PAs are distributed unevenly and conservation gaps remain in the region. Therefore, these regions should receive more attention when planning new PAs. It is vital that more biodiversity datasets and assessment of ecosystem function regions are integrated in order to provide a basis for the government to formulate appropriate protection and development strategies.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2016YFA0600802)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(41730855,41522301)+1 种基金the Open Project Foundation in Key Laboratory of Geographical Processes and Ecological Security of Changbai Mountains,Ministry of Education(GPES201904)supported by the 11th Recruitment Program of Global Experts(the Thousand Talents Plan)for Young Professionals granted by the central budget of China.
文摘Aims Climate warming and increasing nitrogen(N)deposition have influenced plant nutrient status and thus plant carbon(C)fixation and vegetation composition in boreal peatlands.Phenols,which are secondary metabolites in plants for defense and adaptation,also play important roles in regulating peatland C dynamics due to their anti-decomposition properties.However,how the phenolic levels of different functional types of plants vary depending on nutrient availability remain unclear in boreal peatlands.Methods Here,we investigated total phenols contents(TPC)and total tannins contents in leaves of 11 plant species in 18 peatlands of the Great Hing’an Mountains area in northeastern China,and examined their variations with leaf N and phosphorus(P)and underlying mechanisms.Important Findings Shrubs had higher TPC than graminoids,indicating less C allocation to defense and less uptake of organic N in faster-growing and nonmycorrhizal graminoids than in slower-growing and mycorrhizal shrubs.For shrubs,leaf TPC decreased with increasing N contents but was not influenced by changing leaf phosphorus(P)contents,which suggested that shrubs would reduce the C investment for defense with increasing N availability.Differently,leaf TPC of graminoids increased with leaf N contents and decreased with leaf P contents.As graminoids are more N-limited and less P-limited,we inferred that graminoids would increase the defensive C investment under increased nutrient availability.We concluded that shrubs would invest more C in growth than in defense with increasing N availability,but it was just opposite for graminoids,which might be an important mechanism to explain the resource competition and encroachment of shrubs in boreal peatlands in the context of climate warming and ever-increasing N deposition.
