Diversity-productivity relationship of plant communities in typical grassland during the long- term grazing exclusion succession

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2021.0397

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims Grazing exclusion is an important intervention for restoring degraded grasslands. Understanding the changes of grassland productivity and plant diversity during the long-term grazing exclusion succession, as well as the relationship between diversity and productivity, are helpful for grassland restoration management and utilization.

Methods This study was conducted in a typical grassland system with a long-term grazing exclusion gradient, located at Yunwu Mountain National Nature Reserve in Ningxia Huizu Autonomous Region. The grassland communities under continuous grazing, 9 years of grazing exclusion, 26 years of grazing exclusion, and 34 years of grazing exclusion were chosen as the study objects. We tracked changes in aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP), species diversity and functional diversity, and quantified the relationships between diversity and productivity.

Important findings The results showed that grazing exclusion significantly increased ANPP, litter biomass, functional richness, and functional dispersion of typical grassland, but did not alter species richness, Shannon- Wiener index and functional evenness. In contrast, Simpson dominance index and Pielou evenness index significantly decreased after long-term grazing exclusion (34 years). In addition, grazing exclusion showed diverse effects on community-weighted means of different functional traits. The results of random forest model and variance partition analysis indicated that community-weighted mean functional traits accounted for 70.70% of ANPP variation, and plant height was identified as the most important trait. Functional diversity explained 36.86% of ANPP variation, mainly contributed by functional richness. In contrast, species diversity only explained 14.72% of ANPP variation. Therefore, the contribution of mean trait values and functional diversity to ANPP was much higher than that of species diversity in grassland after grazing exclusion. We suggest that community mean trait values and functional diversity should be incorporated into the studies of plant community dynamics during restoration succession, which will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem function, and provide basis for better realization of ecological restoration goals.

Key words: functional diversity, plant functional trait, species diversity, grazing exclusion, aboveground net primary productivity

ZHANG Yi, CHENG Jie, SU Ji-Shuai, CHENG Ji-Min. Diversity-productivity relationship of plant communities in typical grassland during the long- term grazing exclusion succession[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2022, 46(2): 176-187.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2021.0397

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2022/V46/I2/176

Figures/Tables 6

Table 1 Aboveground net primary productivity and species diversity of grassland communities after grazing exclusion (mean ± SE)

封育年限 GED (a)	纬度 Latitude (° N)	经度 Longitude (° E)	海拔 Altitude (m)	地上生产力 ANPP (g·m^-2)	凋落物生物量 Litter biomass (g·m^-2)	丰富度 Richness	Shannon- Wiener 指数 H′	Pielou均匀度指数 E	Simpson优势度指数 D
0	36.22	106.38	1 942	115.60 ± 13.13^c	30.78 ± 8.02^c	13.33 ± 0.74^a	2.21 ± 0.05^ab	0.86 ± 0.01^a	0.85 ± 0.01^a
9	36.22	106.39	1 928	165.14 ± 10.10^b	61.66 ± 7.38^bc	12.64 ± 0.62^a	2.17 ± 0.07^ab	0.86 ± 0.01^a	0.85 ± 0.01^a
26	36.20	106.41	1 885	253.38 ± 15.32^a	160.06 ± 34.83^b	14.17 ± 0.67^a	2.30 ± 0.05^a	0.87 ± 0.01^a	0.87 ± 0.01^a
34	36.24	106.38	2 098	261.79 ± 19.87^a	346.74 ± 57.52^a	14.42 ± 0.96^a	2.11 ± 0.06^b	0.80 ± 0.01^b	0.81 ± 0.01^b

Fig. 1 Community weighted mean functional traits and functional diversity of grassland communities after grazing exclusion (mean ± SE). Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences (p < 0.05). FDis, functional dispersion; FEve, functional evenness; FRic, functional richness; LCC, leaf carbon concentration; LDMC, leaf dry matter content; LNC, leaf nitrogen concentration; LPC, leaf phosphorus concentration; LT, leaf thickness; SLA, specific leaf area.

Fig. 2 Relationships between aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and community-weighted mean functional traits in grasslands after grazing exclusion. LCC, leaf carbon concentration; LDMC, leaf dry matter content; LNC, leaf nitrogen concentration; LPC, leaf phosphorus concentration; LT, leaf thickness; SLA, specific leaf area.

Fig. 3 Relationship between aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and plant species diversity (A-D) and functional diversity (E-G) in grassland communities after grazing exclusion. D, Simpson dominance index; E, Pielou evenness index; FDis, functional dispersion; FEve, functional evenness; FRic, functional richness; H′, Shannon-Wiener index.

Fig. 4 Results of random forest model (A) and variance partition analysis (B) for factors influencing aboveground net primary productivity of grassland communities after grazing exclusion. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.0l. D, Simpson dominance index; E, Pielou evenness index; FDis, functional dispersion; FEve, functional evenness; FRic, functional richness; H′, Shannon-Wiener index; LCC, leaf carbon concentration; LDMC, leaf dry matter content; LNC, leaf nitrogen concentration; LPC, leaf phosphorus concentration; LT, leaf thickness; SLA, specific leaf area.

Table 2 Pearson coefficients showing the correlation of community-weighted mean functional traits to functional diversity and species diversity in grasslands after grazing exclusion

	高度 Height	叶片厚度 LT	叶干物质含量 LDMC	比叶面积 SLA	叶片碳含量 LCC	叶片氮含量 LNC	叶片磷含量 LPC	功能丰富度 FR_ic	功能均匀度 FE_ve	功能离散度 FD_is
物种丰富度 Richness	0.106	0.014	-0.347^*	0.301^*	-0.077	0.133	0.145	0.551^**	0.199	0.206
Shannon-Wiener指数 H′	-0.232	-0.188	-0.233	0.327^*	-0.145	0.369^**	0.347^*	0.284	0.294^*	0.100
Pielou均匀度指数 E	-0.502^**	-0.280	0.108	0.082	-0.120	0.416^**	0.364^*	-0.243	0.225	-0.094
Simpson优势度指数 D	-0.376^**	-0.263	-0.043	0.266	-0.104	0.414^**	0.360^*	0.037	0.181	0.048

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