Effects of mowing intensity on temporal stability of aboveground biomass in the Stipa grandis steppe

doi:10.17520/biods.2019405

Abstract

Abstract:

We conducted a mowing experiment between 2014 and 2018 to test the effects of different mowing intensity on the temporal stability of aboveground biomass in the Stipa grandis typical steppe in Inner Mongolia. Four mowing treatments were tested: enclosure (CK, no mowing), light mowing (stubble 8 cm), moderate mowing (stubble 5 cm) and heavy mowing (stubble 2 cm). We found that mowing had no significant effect on the temporal stability of the community compared with the enclosure, but it had a significant impact on the mean temporal stability of species. Under heavy mowing the mean temporal stability of species significantly decreased, and there was no significant correlation between the mean temporal stability of species and the temporal stability of community, indicating that these fluctuated independently. Compared with the enclosure (CK), species richness under heavy mowing reduced significantly, but had no significant correlation with community temporal stability, indicating that species richness was not the dominant factor in the temporal stability of community. In addition, the community resistance reduced significantly under heavy mowing but it also had no significant correlation with the temporal stability of the community. We found that there was a very significantly positive correlation between asynchrony and community temporal stability, but that mowing had no significant effect on asynchrony, so it did not cause significant changes in community stability. Therefore, asynchrony may be one of the dominant effects on the temporal stability of the community. In the process of grassland management and utilization, the stability of grassland could be evaluated from the perspective of species asynchrony.

Key words: temporal stability, asynchrony, functional groups, mowing, stubble height, resistance

Feng Zhang, Jiahua Zheng, Mengli Zhao, Daling Chen, Yang Yang, Jirong Qiao, Tianqi Zhao. Effects of mowing intensity on temporal stability of aboveground biomass in the Stipa grandis steppe[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2020, 28(7): 779-786.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2019405

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2020/V28/I7/779

Figures/Tables 4

Fig. 1 Aboveground biomass ratio of dominant species (A) and functional groups (B) to total aboveground biomass under different mowing intensity. CK, Control, enclosure and not mowing; LM, Light mowing; MM, Moderate mowing; HM, Heavy mowing. Different letters indicate significant difference; NS, Not significant.

Fig. 2 Temporal stability of community (A), functional groups (B-F), and dominant species (G-J) aboveground biomass under different mowing intensity (n = 9). CK, Control, enclosure and not mowing; LM, Light mowing; MM, Moderate mowing; HM, Heavy mowing; NS, Not significant.

Fig. 3 Asynchrony (A), community resistance (B), mean temporal stability of species (C), and species richness (D) under different mowing intensity. CK, Control, enclosure and not mowing; LM, Light mowing; MM, Moderate mowing; HM, Heavy mowing. Different letters indicate significant difference (n = 9); NS: Not significant.

Fig. 4 Relationships of community temporal stability with asynchrony (A), community resistance (B), species mean temporal stability (C), and species richness (D) (n = 36)

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