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Performance of two alpine plant species along environmental gradients in an alpine meadow ecosystem in central Tibet

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Ecological Research

Abstract

Understanding how biotic interactions and abiotic conditions affect plant performance is important for predicting changes in ecosystem function and services in variable environments. We tested how performances of Astragalus rigidulus and Potentilla fruticosa change along gradients of biotic interactions (represented by plant species richness, abundance of the dominant plant species Kobresia pygmaea, and herbivory intensity) and abiotic conditions (represented by elevation, aspect, and slope steepness) across a semi-arid landscape in central Tibet. Redundancy analyses showed that the biotic variables explained 30 and 39 % of the variation in overall performance of A. rigidulus (P = 0.03) and P. fruticosa (P = 0.01), respectively. Abiotic variables did not contribute significantly to variation among A. rigidulus populations. Plant size decreased with species richness in both species and was larger on south- rather than north-facing slopes. Reproductive effort for both species was significantly negatively related to the abundance of K. pygmaea and both species had larger reproductive effort on south- rather than north- and west-facing slopes. The proportion of biomass allocated to sexual reproduction in P. fruticosa was negatively correlated with K. pygmaea abundance and herbivory intensity. The population density of P. fruticosa was positively related to elevation, species richness, and K. pygmaea abundance. We conclude that plant performance at a local scale was more strongly related to biotic than abiotic conditions, but different components of plant performance responded differently to predictor variables and the responses were species-specific. These findings have important implications for rangeland management under changing environmental conditions.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate two anonymous reviewers’ very constructive comments on our MS. We thank the University Co-operation Tibet-Norway Network for providing funds for Tsechoe Dorji to conduct his Ph.D. studies. This work is also partially supported by the National Science Foundation of China (31470524, 41230750 and 31272488), Programs from Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB03030403) and National Basic Research Programs of China (2013CB956000). We thank Mr. Chengding Li and Ms. Hailin Li from Tibet University for fieldwork assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nongke Road No. 6, Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China

    Tsechoe Dorji

  2. Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China

    Tsechoe Dorji & Shiping Wang

  3. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Science, 4A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China

    Tsechoe Dorji & Shiping Wang

  4. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432, Ås, Norway

    Tsechoe Dorji, Stein R. Moe & Ørjan Totland

  5. Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, 213 Natural Resources Building, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Julia A. Klein

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  1. Tsechoe Dorji
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  2. Stein R. Moe
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Correspondence to Tsechoe Dorji.

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Dorji, T., Moe, S.R., Klein, J.A. et al. Performance of two alpine plant species along environmental gradients in an alpine meadow ecosystem in central Tibet. Ecol Res 31, 417–426 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-016-1350-2

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