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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2015, Vol. 14 Issue (10): 2099-2108    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(14)61001-7
Soil & Fertilization﹒Irrigation﹒Plant Nutrition﹒ Agro-Ecology & Environment Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
Responses of plant diversity and primary productivity to nutrient addition in a Stipa baicalensis grassland, China
 YU  Li, SONG  Xiao-long, ZHAO  Jian-ning, WANG  Hui, BAI  Long, YANG  Dian-lin
1、Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin 300191, P.R.China
2、College of Horticulture, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, P.R.China
3、Key Laboratory of Original Agro-Environment Quality, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin 300191, P.R.China
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摘要  Nutrient addition can affect the structure and diversity of grassland plant communities, thus alter the grassland productivity. Studies on grassland plant community composition, structure and diversity in response to nutrient addition have an important theoretical and practical significance for the scientific management of grassland, protection of plant diversity and the recovery of degraded grassland. A randomized block design experiment was conducted with six blocks of eight treatments each: control (no nutrient addition) and K, P, N, PK, NK, NP, and NPK addition. We evaluated plant composition, height, coverage, density, and aboveground biomass to estimate primary productivity and plant diversity. Results showed that all treatments increased primary productivity significantly (P<0.05) with the exception of the K and the NPK treatments had the greatest effect, increasing aboveground biomass 2.46 times compared with the control (P<0.05). One-way ANOVA and factorial analysis were used for the species richness, Shannon-Wiener index, Pielou index and aboveground biomass, and the relationships between the diversity indices and aboveground biomass were determined through linear regression. We found that fertilization altered the community structure; N (but not P or K) addition increased the proportion of perennial rhizome grasses and significantly reduced that of perennial forbs (P<0.05), thus it presented a trend of decrease in species richness, Shannon-Wiener and Pielou indexex, respectively. Only the main effects of N had significant impacts on both the diversity indices and the aboveground biomass (P<0.05), and the interactions between N-P, N-K, P-K and N-P-K could be neglected. With fertilization, plant diversity (correlation coefficient, –0.61), species richness (–0.49), and species evenness (–0.51) were all negatively linearly correlated with primary productivity. The correlations were all significant (P<0.01). Scientific nutrient management is an effective way to improve grassland productivity, protect the plant diversity as well as recover the degraded grassland.

Abstract  Nutrient addition can affect the structure and diversity of grassland plant communities, thus alter the grassland productivity. Studies on grassland plant community composition, structure and diversity in response to nutrient addition have an important theoretical and practical significance for the scientific management of grassland, protection of plant diversity and the recovery of degraded grassland. A randomized block design experiment was conducted with six blocks of eight treatments each: control (no nutrient addition) and K, P, N, PK, NK, NP, and NPK addition. We evaluated plant composition, height, coverage, density, and aboveground biomass to estimate primary productivity and plant diversity. Results showed that all treatments increased primary productivity significantly (P<0.05) with the exception of the K and the NPK treatments had the greatest effect, increasing aboveground biomass 2.46 times compared with the control (P<0.05). One-way ANOVA and factorial analysis were used for the species richness, Shannon-Wiener index, Pielou index and aboveground biomass, and the relationships between the diversity indices and aboveground biomass were determined through linear regression. We found that fertilization altered the community structure; N (but not P or K) addition increased the proportion of perennial rhizome grasses and significantly reduced that of perennial forbs (P<0.05), thus it presented a trend of decrease in species richness, Shannon-Wiener and Pielou indexex, respectively. Only the main effects of N had significant impacts on both the diversity indices and the aboveground biomass (P<0.05), and the interactions between N-P, N-K, P-K and N-P-K could be neglected. With fertilization, plant diversity (correlation coefficient, –0.61), species richness (–0.49), and species evenness (–0.51) were all negatively linearly correlated with primary productivity. The correlations were all significant (P<0.01). Scientific nutrient management is an effective way to improve grassland productivity, protect the plant diversity as well as recover the degraded grassland.
Keywords:  aboveground biomass       nitrogen       phosphorus       plant diversity       potassium       temperate meadow steppe  
Received: 15 September 2014   Accepted:
Fund: 

This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31170435), the Key Technologies R&D Program of China during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2012BAD13B07), the Fundamental Research Laboratory of the Central-Level Nonprofit Research Institutes, China and the Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Environmental Quality in the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Environment and Safety of Agricultural Products in Tianjin, China.

Corresponding Authors:  YANG Dian-lin, Mobile: +86-13132188123,Fax: +86-22-23611820, E-mail: yangdianlin@caas.cn     E-mail:  yangdianlin@caas.cn
About author:  YU Li, E-mail: yupidou0826@163.com;

Cite this article: 

YU Li, SONG Xiao-long, ZHAO Jian-ning, WANG Hui, BAI Long, YANG Dian-lin. 2015. Responses of plant diversity and primary productivity to nutrient addition in a Stipa baicalensis grassland, China. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 14(10): 2099-2108.

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