Belowground soil and vegetation components change across the aridity threshold in grasslands
Datos Bibliográficos
| ID | 15545501 |
|---|---|
| Autores | Zhuobing Ren (0000-0002-7979-1911, Beijing Normal University), Changjia Li (0000-0001-7297-9658, Beijing Normal University, autor de correspondencia), Bojie Fu (0000-0002-9920-9802, Beijing Normal University), Shuai Wang (0009-0006-8287-7691, Beijing Normal University), Wenxin Zhou (0000-0001-5133-7314, Beijing Normal University), L C Stringer (0000-0003-0017-1654, University of York) |
| Año | 2023 |
| Volumen | 18 |
| Número | 9 |
| Páginas | 094014-094014 |
| Fecha de publicación | 2023-07-31 |
| Open Access | Sí |
| Tipo | ARTICLE |
| Revista | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Identificadores de la revista | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Editorial | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/acec02 |
| OpenAlex | W4385411236 |
| Idioma | EN |
| Citas recibidas | 1 |
| Referencias citadas | 52 |
Grassland ecosystem functions are affected by global climate change and increasing aridity. Belowground components of soil and vegetation, such as specific root length, belowground biomass and soil organic carbon are important for maintaining these functions. However, aridity affects these components in different ways. This research evaluates changes in soil properties and plant attributes with aridity along a 2600 km aridity gradient in the arid and semiarid grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The aridity index was used considering the ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration, where a higher value indicates greater aridity. Results showed an overall aridity threshold for grassland ecosystems of 0.67, where abrupt changes in belowground components were observed. The effect of aridity on specific root length changed from negative (−0.18) below the threshold to positive (0.24) above the threshold, with the emergence of coordination between aboveground and belowground plant characteristics. Aridity exhibited a negative effect on belowground biomass, increasing from −0.24 below the threshold to −0.55 above the threshold as the positive effect of relative grass abundance disappeared. The total effect of aridity on soil organic carbon showed a subtle change, but the driving pathways through which aridity affects changed from soil loss to aridity itself and vegetation cover at plot scale. These findings highlight how aridity affects belowground components in grassland ecosystems above and below the aridity threshold. They provide a basis for better understanding aridity-driven interactions in grassland ecosystems, and can be used to inform actions to protect grasslands under future climate change
Agroforestry · Agronomy · Arid · Aridity index · Biology · Biomass (ecology · Climate change · Ecosystem · Evapotranspiration · Geography · Grassland · Precipitation · Soil carbon · Soil water · Vegetation (pathology · Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies · Environmental Science · Pasture and Agricultural Systems · Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics · Ecology · Soil Science
| Citas por año | 1 |
|---|---|
| Intervalo de citas | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Altamente citado | No |