Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2026, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (4): 870-882.DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2025.0137  cstr: 32100.14.cjpe.2025.0137

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of nutrient addition on species diversity and composition of alpine meadows at different altitudes

LI Yi1,3,*, HUANG Huan2,*, ZHAO Yan-Chao1, CHEN Li-Tong1,**()()   

  1. 1 Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China
    2 College of Eco-Environmental Engineering, Qinghai University, Xining 810016, China
    3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2025-04-14 Accepted:2025-10-17 Online:2026-04-20 Published:2026-06-25
  • Contact: CHEN Li-Tong
  • About author:First author contact:

    *Contributed equally to this work

  • Supported by:
    Applied Basic Research Project in Qinghai Province(2020-ZJ-751);Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) Program(2019QZKK0302)

Abstract:

Aims Due to the deficiency of soil available nutrients on the Qingzang Plateau, nutrient addition can change the species diversity and composition of alpine meadows by differently affecting species or functional groups. Meanwhile, given an apparent heterogeneity in environmental conditions across elevations, the responses of species diversity and composition to nutrient addition may be vertically differentiated. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of nutrient addition on the species diversity and composition of alpine meadow communities at different altitudes.

Methods From 2021 to 2024, we added nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and both nitrogen and phosphorus at three altitudes (3 200 m, 3 700 m and 4 050 m), and conducted community surveys at the peak of growing season each year. We then calculated α diversity index (species richness, Shannon-Weiner index, Invsimpson index and Pielou evenness index) and β diversity index (Bray-Curtis similarity and Jaccard similarity), and quantified the relative abundance and species richness of different functional groups.

Important findings (1) The α diversity of low elevation communities was insensitive to nutrient addition, but of middle elevation communities decreased with N addition, remained unchanged with P addition, and increased with both N and P additions. By contrast, at high elevations α diversity increased significantly with nutrient addition. The differences in the response of α diversity to nutrient addition are mainly due to the abundance and diversity of plant functional groups being affected differently by nutrient addition, in particular, the colonization and local extinction of some rare species at different elevations. (2) Nutrient addition reduced the community similarity of low and mid-elevations, whereas it resulted in community homogenization at high elevations.

Key words: alpine meadows, α diversity, β diversity, nitrogen addition, phosphorus addition