Effects of nutrient addition and precipitation changes on the stability of aboveground and belowground biomass in desert grassland

doi:10.17520/biods.2024073

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: This study aims to clarify the response of desert grassland ecosystem function and stability to changes in water and nutrient resource availability, and to elucidate the mechanisms and pathways influencing biomass stability in desert grassland.

Methods: This study conducted a 5-year field control experiment on nutrient addition and precipitation changes in desert grasslands in Ningxia from 2018 to 2022. The experimental treatments included: control (Cont), N addition (N, 10 g·m^-2·yr^-1), NPK addition (NPK, 10 g·m^-2·yr^-1 N + 10 g·m^-2·yr^-1 P + 10 g·m^-2·yr^-1 K), 50% reduction in precipitation (Cont - 50%), 50% increase in precipitation (Cont + 50%), N addition + 50% reduction in precipitation (N - 50%), N addition + 50% increase in precipitation (N + 50%), NPK addition + 50% decrease in precipitation (NPK - 50%), and NPK addition + 50% increase in precipitation (NPK + 50%). The aboveground and belowground biomass, as well as species diversity, were determined. Additionally, species asynchrony, species diversity, biomass stability, and the factors affecting biomass stability were analyzed.

Results: The results demonstrated that (1) nutrient addition and precipitation changes significantly impacted the biomass of desert grassland plant communities. The NPK + 50% treatment led to a substantial increase in aboveground biomass (156.28%), belowground biomass (51.95%), and total biomass (75.67%). In contrast, the Cont - 50% treatment resulted in a significant decrease in aboveground biomass (45.59%), belowground biomass (25.09%), and total biomass (31.41%). (2) Except for the NPK + 50% treatment, the stability of plant community biomass in other treatments was notably lower than that in the control treatment. The aboveground biomass stability of the NPK + 50% treatment decreased by 31.90%, while the stability of belowground and total biomass increased by 33.48% and 12.38%, respectively. (3) Furthermore, nutrient addition and precipitation changes significantly influenced species diversity (including species richness and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index) and species asynchrony. Their interaction had a notable impact on species asynchrony. (4) The change in precipitation reduced the stability of aboveground and total biomass by reducing species asynchrony. The stability of aboveground biomass had no significant direct effect on the stability of total biomass. In contrast, the stability of belowground biomass had a considerable positive impact on the stability of total biomass.

Conclusion: In summary, nutrient addition and precipitation changes reduced the stability of biomass in desert grasslands, with species asynchrony (complementary effect) being the primary mechanism influencing biomass stability in desert grasslands. In desert grassland areas, the contribution of belowground biomass stability to total biomass stability was more significant than that of aboveground biomass stability. Therefore, when exploring the response patterns and mechanisms of plant community stability to nutrient addition and precipitation changes, it is essential to consider not only the aboveground parts of plants but also the changes and responses of the belowground parts.

Key words: desert grassland, nutrient addition, precipitation changes, stability of belowground biomass, stability of total biomass

Xingyuan Yin, Hui An, Binbin Xing, Shiyu Su, Zhilin Wen, Jianchao Guo, Xiaoping Liu, Bo Wang. Effects of nutrient addition and precipitation changes on the stability of aboveground and belowground biomass in desert grassland[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2024, 32(7): 24073.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2024073

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2024/V32/I7/24073

Figures/Tables 6

Table 1 Effects of nutrient addition, precipitation changes, and their interaction on species asynchrony and plant diversity

处理 Treatment	物种异步性 Species asynchrony	物种丰富度 Species richness	Shannon-Wiener多样性指数Shannon-Wiener diversity index
养分添加 Nutrient addition (NA)	60.347^***	8.430^***	3.714^*
降水变化 Precipitation changes (PC)	82.642^***	19.955^***	2.744^*
NA × PC	11.592^***	0.669	0.445

Fig. 1 Effects of nutrient addition and precipitation changes on species richness (a), Shannon-Wiener diversity index (b) and species asynchrony (c) of desert grassland (mean + SD). +50%, W, and -50% represent an increase of 50% precipitation, natural precipitation (without changing precipitation), and a decrease of 50% precipitation, respectively. Cont, N, and NPK represent control (without nutrient addition), N addition (with 10 g·m-2·yr-1 N added), and NPK addition (with 10 g·m-2·yr-1 N + 10 g·m-2·yr-1 P + 10 g·m-2·yr-1 K added simultaneously), respectively. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences in precipitation under the same nutrient; different uppercase letters indicate significant differences in nutrient addition under the same precipitation (P < 0.05).

Fig. 2 Effects of nutrient addition and precipitation changes on aboveground biomass (a), belowground biomass (b) and total biomass (c) of desert grassland (mean + SD). +50%, W, -50%, Cont, N, and NPK are the same as in Fig. 1. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences in precipitation under the same nutrient; different uppercase letters indicate significant differences in nutrient addition under the same precipitation (P < 0.05).

Fig. 3 Effects of nutrient addition and precipitation changes on the stability of aboveground biomass (a), belowground biomass (b) and total biomass (c) in desert grassland (mean + SD). +50%, W, -50%, Cont, N, and NPK are the same as in Fig. 1. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences in precipitation under the same nutrient; different uppercase letters indicate significant differences in nutrient addition under the same precipitation (P < 0.05).

Fig. 4 Effects of nutrient addition and precipitation changes on biomass stability of dominant species (a) and non-dominant species (b) in desert grassland (mean + SD). +50%, W, -50%, Cont, N, and NPK are the same as in Fig. 1. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences in precipitation under the same nutrient; different uppercase letters indicate significant differences in nutrient addition under the same precipitation (P < 0.05).

Fig. 5 Effects of nutrient addition and precipitation changes on biomass stability in desert grassland. The solid and dashed lines represent significant (P < 0.05) and insignificant (P > 0.05) relationships between variables, respectively. The black arrow represents a positive effect, and the gray arrow represents a negative effect. Positive and negative numbers represent standardized regression coefficient (β); * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001; R2 represents the explanatory power of a variable’s variance to other variables.

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