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Spatial patterns of soil nutrients, plant diversity, and aboveground biomass in the Inner Mongolia grassland: before and after a biodiversity removal experiment

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Abstract

Context

Spatial heterogeneity is ubiquitous in ecological systems, and has important effects on biological diversity and ecological processes.

Objectives

Does spatial heterogeneity affect the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF)? To help address this question, this study investigated how the spatial patterns of key BEF variables changed before and after the biodiversity removal during a BEF experiment in China.

Methods

Our analysis was based on data from the Inner Mongolia grassland removal experiment (IMGRE) which was conducted in the Xilingol Steppe, Inner Mongolia, China. We quantified the spatial patterns of key variables of BEF, and examined the spatial relationships among these variables, using biodiversity indices and spatial statistical methods (autocorrelation and semivariance analysis).

Results

Our results show that the variables of BEF in the Inner Mongolian grassland had various spatial patterns, most of which were spatially correlated to each other. Removal treatments had significant effects on these spatial structures and correlations. These effects were diverse in terms of both their kinds and magnitudes because of different removal protocols and treatments.

Conclusions

The differences in spatial patterns of plant and soil variables and their correlations before and after the biodiversity manipulation do not necessarily imply that the results from BEF experiments like IMGRE are invalid, but they do suggest that the possible effects of spatial heterogeneity on the BEF relationship should be further scrutinized in future studies.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Xiaotao Lü, Qingmin Pan, Meng Wang and Qibing Wang for their assistance with some of the data acquisition. This study was supported by Grants from National Science Foundation (DEB-0618193), National Natural Science Foundation of China (30830026), and National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2007CB106801).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Fei Yuan

  2. School of Life Sciences and Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Jianguo Wu & Helen Rowe

  3. Sino-US Center for Conservation, Energy, and Sustainability Science, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, China

    Jianguo Wu

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

    Ang Li, Yongfei Bai, Jianhui Huang & Xingguo Han

  5. Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Xingguo Han

Authors
  1. Fei Yuan
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  2. Jianguo Wu
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  3. Ang Li
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  4. Helen Rowe
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  5. Yongfei Bai
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  7. Xingguo Han
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Correspondence to Ang Li.

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Yuan, F., Wu, J., Li, A. et al. Spatial patterns of soil nutrients, plant diversity, and aboveground biomass in the Inner Mongolia grassland: before and after a biodiversity removal experiment. Landscape Ecol 30, 1737–1750 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0154-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0154-z

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