How Do You Rate This Publication?       

Title:	Spatial relationships among species, above-ground biomass, N, and P in degraded grasslands in Ordus Plateau, northwestern China
Author(s):	Cheng, X.; An, S.; chen, J.; Li, B.; Liu, Y.; Liu, S.
Date:	2007
Source:	Journal of Arid Environments, Vol. 68: 652-667
Description:	We chose five communities, representing a mild to severe gradient of grassland desertification in a semi-arid area of Ordos Plateau, northwestern China, to explore the spatial relationships among plant species, above-ground biomass (AGB), and plant nutrients (N and P). Community 1 (Cl) was dominated by Stipa bungeana; community 2 (C2) by a mix of S and the shrub Artemisia ordosica; community 3 (C3) by a ordosica, community 4 (C4) by a mix of Cynachum komarovii and C. komorovii, and community 5 (C5) by C. komorovii. Quantitative methods, including geostatistics, were used to compare community composition, structure, and indicators of ecosystem funciton (i.2. AGB, plant N and P.) in five 16-m2 plots. the highest AGB, plant nitrogen (N) and plant phosphorus (p) were found in lightly degraded community C2. With increasing desertification effects from C3 to C5, the AGB, N, and P decreased significantly while plant density remained unchanged. The spatial variations of AGB were higher in shrub-dominated communities (C1 and C5) than in grass-dominated communities (C2-C4). Strong spatial relationships were detected within and among the communities, with stronger relationships between AGB and density than between AGB and species richness. Spatial patterns of plant N and P were different from those of AGB, reflecting different N and P contents of individual plants and different species that can redistribute soil resources in these communities. the AGB was positively correlated with soil nutrients (TOC, TN, TP, and IN), except for soil AP. We concluded that several specific aspects of ecosystem properties were directly associated with the conversion of the grass and shrub "functional types" in these degraded grasslands.
	View and Print this Publication (2.32 MB)
Pristine Version:	An uncaptured or "pristine" version of this publication is available. It has not been subjected to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and therefore does not have any errors in the text. However it is a larger file size and some people may experience long download times. The "pristine" version of this publication is available here: View and Print the PRISTINE copy of this Publication (2.08 MB)
Publication Notes:	We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information. This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain. Our on-line publications are scanned and captured using Adobe Acrobat. During the capture process some typographical errors may occur. Please contact the SRS Webmaster, srswebmaster@fs.fed.us if you notice any errors which make this publication unuseable.
	Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility