Effects of organic and inorganic fertilizers on density and individual biomass of Leymus chinensis in degraded grasslands

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2024.0148

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims Leymus chinensis grassland is one of the most representative vegetation types in northern temperate grassland of China. Overgrazing causes great decline in the proportion of L. chinensis biomass to community biomass. Application of organic and inorganic fertilizers can significantly promote the recovery of L. chinensis population, but the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood.

Methods In a degraded L. chinensis grassland in Hulun Buir, the effects of organic and inorganic fertilizers on plant community, L. chinensis populations and individuals were explored with the same amount of nitrogen (10 g·m^-2·a^-1) and phosphorus (3 g·m^-2·a^-1) application.

Important findings At the plant community level, the application of organic and inorganic fertilizers both consistently and significantly increased above-ground biomass in all three years (2021-2023), with the higher biomass under organic fertilizer application. While the application of organic fertilizer significantly reduced the species richness in the second and third year at community level. At the population level, both organic and inorganic fertilizers significantly increased the aboveground biomass of L. chinensis and its proportion in community-level biomass, with higher values under organic fertilizer application. In the third year, the density of L. chinensis with inorganic and organic fertilizer treatments significantly increased by 1.79 and 8.89 times, respectively. At the individual level, the biomass of L. chinensis with inorganic and organic fertilizer treatments significantly increased by 85.3% and 69.1%, respectively. Variance partition analysis suggested that the population density and individual biomass respectively explained 81.8% and 6.2% of the variation in population biomass of L. chinensis. Our results suggested that the application of organic or inorganic fertilizer can promote the restoration of degraded L. chinensis grassland. The increase in population density rather than individual biomass of L. chinensis is the predominant mechanism for its population recovery.

Key words: restoration of degraded grasslands, community biomass, species richness, density-dependent regulation, individual biomass-dependent regulation

HAO Yi-Qing, LIU Wei, YANG Yang, AN Bing-Er, FAN Bing, LI Chao, CUI Jiu-Hui, CHENG Yan-Bin, SUN Jia-Mei, PAN Qing-Min. Effects of organic and inorganic fertilizers on density and individual biomass of Leymus chinensis in degraded grasslands[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2025, 49(1): 148-158.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2024.0148

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2025/V49/I1/148

Figures/Tables 6

Fig. 1 Effects of inorganic (IN) and organic (ON) fertilization on community aboveground biomass of a degraded grassland in Hulun Buir (2021-2023) (mean ± SE, n = 6). CK, control. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences among treatments (p < 0.05).

Fig. 2 Effects of inorganic (IN) and organic (ON) fertilization on species richness of a degraded grassland in Hulun Buir (2021-2023) (mean ± SE, n = 6). CK, control. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences among treatments (p < 0.05), ns represents non-significant difference among treatments (p > 0.05).

Fig. 3 Effects of inorganic (IN) and organic (ON) fertilization on aboveground biomass of Leymus chinensis and its proportion in community aboveground biomass (2021-2023) (mean ± SE, n = 6). CK, control. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences among treatments (p < 0.05).

Fig. 4 Effects of inorganic (IN) and organic (ON) fertilization on population density and individual biomass of Leymus chinensis (2021-2023) (mean ± SE, n = 6). CK, control. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences among treatments (p < 0.05).

Fig. 5 Contributions of population density and individual biomass of Leymus chinensis to variation of its aboveground population biomass (2021-2023).

Fig. 6 Correlation between soil inorganic nitrogen content, pH and population density and individual biomass of Leymus chinensis (2022). The lines and shades represent the regression lines with 95% confidence intervals. Statistics (R2 and p values) and the equations for the linear regression are shown. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001.

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