Nitrogen enrichment enhances the dominance of grasses over forbs in a temperate steppe ecosystem

By L. Song, X. Bao, Xuejun Liu, Y. Zhang, P. Christie, A. Fangmeier, Fusuo Zhang. 2011

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Abstract. Chinese grasslands are extensive natural ecosystems that comprise 40 % of the total land area of the country and are sensitive to N deposition. A field experiment with six N rates (0, 30, 60, 120, 240, and 480 kg N ha−1 yr−1) was conducted at Duolun, Inner Mongolia, during 2005 and 2010 to identify some effects of N addition on a temperate steppe ecosystem. The dominant plant species in the plots were divided into two categories, grasses and forbs, on the basis of species life forms. Enhanced N deposition, even as little as 30 kg N ha−1 yr−1 above ambient N deposition (16 kg N ha−1 yr−1), led to a decline in species richness. The cover of grasses increased with N addition rate but their species richness showed a weak change across N treatments. Both species richness and cover of forbs declined strongly with increasing N deposition as shown by linear regression analysis (p

Subfields: Ecology, Forestry, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0245c403a4c905879669c436483934d02c40d557