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Effects of rainfall amount and frequency on vegetation growth in a Tibetan alpine meadow

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Abstract

Over the past decades, rainfall amount and frequency changed considerably on the Tibetan Plateau. However, how altered rainfall pattern affects vegetation growth and phenology in Tibetan alpine grasslands is poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the long-term effects of rainfall amount and frequency on production (i.e., aboveground biomass, AGB) and phenology of three perennial plants in a Tibetan alpine meadow from 1994 to 2005. Growth period (i.e., the dates from greening to senescence) was referred to plant phenology here. Our results showed that annual precipitation and total rainfall from large events (≥ 5 mm per day) were mainly distributed in the growing season, which increased significantly from 1994 to 2005 with more increment in May and July (p < 0.05). Total AGB and growth periods of three plants were linearly correlated with annual precipitation and total rainfall from large events, but have insignificant correlations with total rainfall from small events (< 5 mm per day) and rainfall frequency (including small, large, and all events). The results suggest that aboveground plant production and phenology are more sensitive to changes in large rainfall events (≥ 5 mm per day) than small events (< 5 mm per day) in the alpine meadow ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the five anonymous reviewers for the insightful comments on the manuscript. This research was financially supported by China eleventh and twelfth 5-year plan science and technology support project (2007BAC30B00 and 2012BAH31B03), and sponsored by 2012 Shanghai Pujiang Program (12PJ1401400), Thousand Young Talents Program in China, and The Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Lab of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, 710075, China

    Baocheng Zhang & Junji Cao

  2. Coastal Ecosystems Research Station of the Yangtze River Estuary, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, The Institute of Biodiversity Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Baocheng Zhang & Xuhui Zhou

  3. Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Yanfen Bai

  4. Shaanxi Changqing National Natural Reserve, Yang County, Shaanxi Province, 723300, China

    Zhigang Ning

  5. College of Agriculture and life sciences, Ankang University, Ankang, 725000, China

    Songjie Yang & Lin Hu

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  1. Baocheng Zhang
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Correspondence to Baocheng Zhang or Xuhui Zhou.

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Baocheng Zhang, Junji Cao, Yanfen Bai and Xuhui Zhou are contributed equally to this work

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Zhang, B., Cao, J., Bai, Y. et al. Effects of rainfall amount and frequency on vegetation growth in a Tibetan alpine meadow. Climatic Change 118, 197–212 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0622-2

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