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Diversity
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Biodiversity and Its Function Change in the Alpine Ecosystem under...
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Biodiversity and Its Function Change in the Alpine Ecosystem under Human Activity

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Diversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 11292

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xiaowei Guo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Restoration Ecology for Cold Region, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, China
Interests: grassland degradation; hydrologic process; water cycle; water conservation function
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Bin Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Adjunct Associate Professor, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, Gulbali Research Institute Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650, Australia
Interests: climate change; crop model; hydrological model; agriculture; extreme climate events; machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Alpine grassland plays an important role in carbon (C) fixation and water and biodiversity conservation. Grazing is the main way for humans to use alpine grassland, but unfortunately, the degradation of alpine grasslands has been accelerated by climate change and grazing activities. Human disturbances are quick and serious, seriously threatening the fragile alpine ecosystems. The degraded alpine grassland area has reached 83% of the total available grassland area because of overgrazing, while 50–60% of degraded grasslands have lost all grazing function. Degradation of alpine grasslands is a chain reaction, which has recently drawn significant interest and become a global concern.

The subject of this Special Issue is to elucidate the vegetation, soil nutrients, soil hydrology, plant diversity, productivity, and mechanisms of alpine grassland ecosystems responding to human activity. Observational, experimental, and modeling studies are welcomed. Topics of the desired scientific articles include but are not limited to the following:

  1. Effects of human activity on biodiversity patterns and ecosystem processes to different grazing intensity and land-use change;
  2. Soil water retention and hydrology in alpine meadows under different degradation stages;
  3. Effects of grassland degradation on evapotranspiration and soil water infiltration in grassland;
  4. Net primary production of alpine meadow under different grazing intensity and land-use change;
  5. The effect of biodiversity on the restoration of degraded alpine ecosystems;
  6. Proposals to mitigate the impacts of human activity and improve environmental sustainability;
  7. The plant–microorganism interactions in alpine ecosystems;
  8. Effects of grassland degradation on phenophases;
  9. Soil water storage change process and mechanism under human activity.

Dr. Xiaowei Guo
Dr. Bin Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • grassland
  • alpine meadow
  • grassland degradation
  • restoration
  • plant diversity
  • soil water storage
  • phenology
  • drivers of change
  • sustainable management

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2754 KiB  
Article
Ecosystem Service Relationships, Drivers, and Regulation Strategies in a Degraded Alpine Shrub Meadow on the Northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
by Dawen Qian, Bo Fan, Yuting Lan, Mengke Si, Qian Li and Xiaowei Guo
Diversity 2023, 15(5), 596; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15050596 - 26 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1323
Abstract
One of the challenges of managing grasslands sustainably is the conflict between the different ecosystem services they provide. This is especially evident in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) region, where fragile alpine ecosystems make balancing the needs of grassland conservation and development difficult. However, [...] Read more.
One of the challenges of managing grasslands sustainably is the conflict between the different ecosystem services they provide. This is especially evident in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) region, where fragile alpine ecosystems make balancing the needs of grassland conservation and development difficult. However, our current understanding of the relationships and drivers of ecosystem services in degraded alpine shrub meadows on the QTP is insufficient. To address this, we studied forage provisioning and water retention services in a degraded alpine shrub meadow in the northeastern QTP. We analyzed the changes and relationships between these services at different levels of degradation and identified those factors that influenced ecosystem service relationships. The results showed that the forage supply service and the water retention service of the alpine shrub meadow increased and decreased by 23.6% and 27.07%, respectively, due to degradation. The trade-offs between these two services varied depending on the degree of degradation, with light and moderate degradation showing a preference for water retention service, and heavy and extreme degradation showing a preference for forage supply. Water retention was constrained by forage supply and both services showed an exponential function form of decay. The physical and chemical properties of the soil in the alpine shrub meadow remained relatively stable during the degradation process, with only soil organic carbon (SOC), total potassium (TK), and total nitrogen (TN) decreasing significantly. SOC may have indirectly influenced the relationship between the two services by affecting water retention. This study provides insights into alpine shrub meadow management and conservation on the QTP. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity and Its Function Change in the Alpine Ecosystem under Human Activity)
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12 pages, 2879 KiB  
Article
Relationship between Biomass and Biodiversity of Degraded Grassland in the Sanjiangyuan Region of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
by Kai Shu, Xue Gao, Dawen Qian, Lei Zhao, Qian Li and Licong Dai
Diversity 2022, 14(11), 1002; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14111002 - 19 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2487
Abstract
Understanding the mechanisms of diversity–productivity relationships is a central question in community ecology. Grazing is the main driving force affecting biodiversity, function, and stability of grassland ecosystems, and thus should play an important role in mediating diversity-productivity relationships. In this study, we examined [...] Read more.
Understanding the mechanisms of diversity–productivity relationships is a central question in community ecology. Grazing is the main driving force affecting biodiversity, function, and stability of grassland ecosystems, and thus should play an important role in mediating diversity-productivity relationships. In this study, we examined the effect of grazing intensity on both aboveground biomass and biodiversity and explored the relationship between them in alpine meadow ecosystems in Sanjiangyuan, which is the source of the Yangtze, Yellow, and Lancang rivers. The results showed that the aboveground biomass and species richness decreased significantly due to multi-state succession in alpine meadows caused by long-term grazing, while the Shannon–Wiener index and Pielou evenness index decreased and then increased with increasing grazing intensity. The relationship between the aboveground biomass and biodiversity was U-shaped. Our results highlighted the opposite pattern of the diversity–productivity relationship under low and medium grazing intensity versus an extremely high grazing intensity; evenness contributed largely to this pattern. This study provided a new perspective on grassland management and the relationship between productivity and biodiversity. Attention should be paid to rational grazing to restore biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services in alpine meadows. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity and Its Function Change in the Alpine Ecosystem under Human Activity)
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19 pages, 6750 KiB  
Article
The Process of Soil Nutrient Stabilization in Micro-Patches in Alpine Kobresia Meadows
by Li Lin, Guangmin Cao, Xiaowei Guo, Qian Li, Dawen Qian, Yangong Du, Junjie Huang, Bo Fan, Bencuo Li, Yuting Lan and Mengke Si
Diversity 2022, 14(8), 656; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14080656 - 14 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1602
Abstract
Micro-patches are the basic unit of grazing ecosystems; the characteristics of these micro-patches are relatively stable in species under different grazing intensities in the same vegetation, but obviously different in terms of the distribution pattern. This leads to differentiation of plant community numerical [...] Read more.
Micro-patches are the basic unit of grazing ecosystems; the characteristics of these micro-patches are relatively stable in species under different grazing intensities in the same vegetation, but obviously different in terms of the distribution pattern. This leads to differentiation of plant community numerical characteristics under different grazing intensities. Understanding the driving force of soil nutrient variation in micro-patches under grazing disturbances will help us comprehend the regulation strategy and adaptation mechanisms of the ecosystem against over-disturbance. We designed four scales: spatial (three typical micro-patches), temporal serial (6 years), a degradation succession process (four key degradation stages), and recovery treatment (three treatments: the original grazing intensity based on herder preferences, half of the original grazing intensity, and zero grazing). The soil nutrient characteristics used to estimate stabilization were the typical soil total nutrient content (soil organic matter [SOM], total nitrogen [TN], total carbon [TC], inorganic carbon [IC], total phosphorus [STP], total potassium [TK], and pH), and available soil nutrients (NH4+, NO3−, phosphorous [avP], and potassium [avK]). Variations in the SOM, TC, IC, TN, STP, avK, and NO3− levels in the main root distribution layers (0–20 cm) on the spatial scale were 69.8–79.7%, 61.4–80.35%, 49.8–79.58%, 60.52–76.34%, 46.44–89.89%, 45.5–71.36%, and 59.21–65.38%, respectively, which accounted for the largest variation in the four scales, based on multivariable analysis. The variations in the avP and NH4+ content of the main root distribution layers (0–20 cm) at the temporal scale were 46.42–67.93% and 48.11–64.55%, respectively, which accounted for the greatest variation in the four scales, based on a multivariable analysis. Upon comparing the degradation succession stages and recovery treatment in each stage, we found that the variation in avP, avK, STP, TN, TC, SOM, TC, and TN content was greater at the degradation succession scale than at the recovery treatment scale. The soil nutrient content of the micro-patches exhibited the smallest decrease in the Gramineae-Kobresia transformation (G-KP) micro-patch, followed by the Gramineae micro-patches (G) and Kobresia micro-patches (KP). The number of G micro-patches decreased with increasing grazing intensity whereas the number of KP micro-patches increased. When the number of KP micro-patches increased to a certain degree, the number of G-KP micro-patches then increased as well. G-KP micro-patches, characterized by cracking in the mattic epipedon in alpine meadows, increased with the grazing intensity increasing in a certain degree in K. pygmaea meadows with mattic epipedon cracking (CP); the latter buffered the nutrient variation and maintained the soil nutrients’ relative stability in the ecosystem. Thus, CP formed the buffer stage for maintaining self-stabilization during a regime shift and was considered the withstanding stage during the alpine Kobresia meadow degradation process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity and Its Function Change in the Alpine Ecosystem under Human Activity)
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15 pages, 1763 KiB  
Article
Response of Soil Water Storage to Meteorological Factors in Alpine Shrub Meadow on Northeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau
by Jing Li, Fawei Zhang, Mengke Si, Yuting Lan, Bencuo Li, Li Lin, Yangong Du, Guangmin Cao and Xiaowei Guo
Diversity 2022, 14(3), 185; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14030185 - 3 Mar 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2207
Abstract
The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) has an important function in ensuring the water ecological security of China, even Asia, and the soil water storage of alpine grassland is an important part of the ecosystem water. Grassland degradation directly affects the soil water storage capacity. [...] Read more.
The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) has an important function in ensuring the water ecological security of China, even Asia, and the soil water storage of alpine grassland is an important part of the ecosystem water. Grassland degradation directly affects the soil water storage capacity. However, the impact of degradation on specific soil storage capacity, especially alpine shrubs, is rarely studied. Here, we chose two plots of alpine non-degraded shrub and degraded shrub, using the automatic soil moisture monitoring system to study the change process of soil moisture storage, and then adopted the boosted regression tree (BRT) model to quantitatively evaluate the relative influence of environmental variables on soil water storage. Our results show: (1) The soil water storage in the growing season (May–September) is higher than that in the non-growing season (January–April and October–December), and the soil water storage reaches its highest in mid-July. (2) During the growing season, the 100 cm soil temperature was the most important factor affecting the seasonal variation in soil water storage, accounting for 51% of the total variation. During the non-growing season, the 40 cm soil temperature was the most important factor affecting the variation in soil water storage, accounting for 80% of the total variation. (3) The soil water storage of non-degraded Potentilla fruticosa shrub meadow increased by 6–25%, compared with degraded grassland shrub meadow during growing-season. (4) Various meteorological factors have a weak impact on soil water storage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity and Its Function Change in the Alpine Ecosystem under Human Activity)
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18 pages, 3590 KiB  
Article
Changes and Relationships between Components in the Plant-Soil System and the Dominant Plant Functional Groups in Alpine Kobresia Meadows Due to Overgrazing
by Li Lin, Guangmin Cao, Xingliang Xu, Chunli Li, Bo Fan, Bencuo Li, Yuting Lan, Mengke Si and Licong Dai
Diversity 2022, 14(3), 183; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14030183 - 2 Mar 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2604
Abstract
In the last several decades, overgrazing has led to various changes in the plant communities, soil nutrients and soil microbial communities in alpine Kobresia meadows, which contain various plant communities coexisting on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Investigating the variations in the biomass and concentration [...] Read more.
In the last several decades, overgrazing has led to various changes in the plant communities, soil nutrients and soil microbial communities in alpine Kobresia meadows, which contain various plant communities coexisting on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Investigating the variations in the biomass and concentration of nutrients in the plant–soil system in these communities may improve understanding of the biochemical responses and adaptation strategies they use to resist disturbances due to overgrazing. We therefore assessed 12 factors across four grazing intensities in alpine Kobresia meadows to explore the following three questions. (1) What the responses are in alpine Kobresia meadows to overgrazing. (2) How they affect plant–soil systems in alpine Kobresia meadows under overgrazing. (3) What factors can be used to evaluate the effects of overgrazing on the ecosystem health status of alpine Kobresia meadows. The results gave the following answers to the above questions. (1) Overgrazing caused the total aboveground biomass to decrease from 333.2 ± 17.4 g/m2 to 217.4 ± 30.2 g/m2, the coverage of plant functional groups of Gramineae and Cyperaceae to decrease from 74.2 ± 3% to 22.5 ± 1.9%, and the total belowground biomass to increase from 4028.5 ± 7.3 g/m2 to 6325.6 ± 24.8 g/m2. (2) Overgrazing resulted in variations in plant–soil systems at three levels. The concentrations of carbon (C) in soil nutrients and plant communities, explained 50.9% of the variation of biomass in plant functional groups; the concentration of soil available nutrients, explained 22.2% of the variation; and the ratio of C and N in shoots and soil total N, explained 11.0% of the variation. (3) The variations in C/N stoichiometry in total soil nutrients and soil microorganisms were 3.4–8.4% and 2.0–3.0%, respectively, and the load of (ammonium-nitrogen (NH4+-N) + nitrate-nitrogen (NO3–-N)) to growth of roots tissue increased from 84.1 ± 5.0 g/m2/(mg/kg) via 99.0 ± 1.3 g/m2/(mg/kg) to 86.1 ± 2.1 g/m2/(mg/kg) at 0 to 40 cm soil in an alpine meadow with grazing intensities rising. Overgrazing would thus increase the deficit of those two kinds of inorganic N on roots growing by 11.4%, 17.7% and 2.4% as grazing rates increased by 93.3%, 126.7% and 213.3%, respectively, compared to a meadow grazed at the lowest rate in the research. We concluded that the alpine meadow changed its distribution of biomass in the plant community, which increased the limiting nutrient deficit on production and altered the concentration and ratio of C and N. This destroyed the original balance to enable the plant community to resist overgrazing. Plot “KH”—a pasture with a grazing intensity next to the lowest one—was the key state in which persistent overgrazing could increase the limiting nutrient load on plant community production, change the dominant position of functional plant groups and species, and lead to plant community degradation. Using ratio of Gramineae to Cyperaceae or Kobresia humilis to K. pygmaea to monitor plant community succession could indirectly estimate these limiting nutrients deficit and balance, and their strategy for incorporating matter into roots and shoots. However how to use those outward characteristics to assess the ecosystem health requires further studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity and Its Function Change in the Alpine Ecosystem under Human Activity)
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