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Vegetation and Soil 15N Natural Abundance in Alpine Grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau: Patterns and Implications

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Abstract

The natural abundance of nitrogen (N) stable isotopes (δ15N) has the potential to enhance our understanding of the ecosystem N cycle at large spatial scales. However, vegetation and soil δ15N patterns along climatic and edaphic gradients have not yet been fully understood, particularly for high-altitude ecosystems. Here we determined vegetation and soil δ15N in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau by conducting four consecutive regional surveys during 2001–2004, and then examined their relationships with both climatic and edaphic variables. Our results showed that both vegetation and soil N in Tibetan alpine grasslands were more 15N-enriched than global averages. Vegetation δ15N did not exhibit any significant trend along the temperature gradient, but decreased significantly with an increase in precipitation amount. In contrast, soil δ15N did not vary with either mean annual temperature or precipitation. Our results also indicated that soil δ15N exhibited a slight increase with clay content, but decreased with soil carbon:nitrogen ratio. A general linear model analysis revealed that variations in vegetation δ15N were dominantly determined by climatic variables, whereas soil δ15N was related to edaphic variables. These results provide clues for potential climatic and edaphic regulations on ecosystem N cycle in these high-altitude regions.

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Acknowledgments

We thank members of the Peking University Sampling Campaign Teams for their assistance in field investigation. This study was sponsored by the start-up funding provided by the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (1102000129), National Basic Research Program of China on Global Change (2010CB950600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31021001), and Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA05050503). H.J.F. was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41071166).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China

    Yuanhe Yang, Haihua Shen & Jingyun Fang

  2. Department of Ecology, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Yuanhe Yang, Chengjun Ji & Jingyun Fang

  3. Institute of Biological and Environmental Science, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, UK

    David Robinson

  4. Department of Horticulture, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14853, USA

    Biao Zhu

  5. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Huajun Fang

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  1. Yuanhe Yang
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Correspondence to Yuanhe Yang.

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Author Contributions

Yuanhe Yang designed the study, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper; Chengjun Ji performed research, and analyzed data; David Robinson analyzed data, and wrote the paper; Biao Zhu analyzed data; Huajun Fang analyzed data; Haihua Shen performed research; Jingyun Fang designed the study and wrote the paper.

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Yang, Y., Ji, C., Robinson, D. et al. Vegetation and Soil 15N Natural Abundance in Alpine Grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau: Patterns and Implications. Ecosystems 16, 1013–1024 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-013-9664-1

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