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Ecosystem carbon exchange under different land use on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

  • Original Papers
  • Published:
Photosynthetica

Abstract

There is a great uncertainty about the effect of land use change on grassland ecosystem in the Tibetan Plateau. Net ecosystem carbon exchange (NEE) was measured for native alpine meadow with winter grazing (NAM), abandoned cropland/pasture (APL), perennial Elymus nutans (PEN), and annual oat pasture (AO) on the Tibetan plateau, during the growing seasons in 2009 and 2010 using a transparent chamber technique (Licor-6400). AO significantly decreased annual average NEE by 21.6, 23.7, and 15.7% compared to PEN, NAM, and APL during the growing season in 2010. Compared to PEN, NAM, and APL, AO significantly decreased average ecosystem respiration (Re) by 21.1, 52.3, and 39.3%, respectively, during the growing season in 2009. Soil moisture and total aboveground and belowground biomass together explained 39.6% of NEE variation and 71% in gross primary productivity variation. Soil moisture and belowground biomass explained about 83.1% of the Re variation. Our results indicated that it is possible to convert APL to PEN in the region because it could result in a higher NEE together with higher forage production compared to AO.

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Abbreviations

AB:

aboveground biomass

AB/BB:

the ratio of aboveground to belowground biomass

AO:

annual oat pasture

APL:

abandoned cropland/pasture

BB:

belowground biomass for 0–20 cm

GPP:

gross primary production

P N :

net photosynthesis

NAM:

native alpine meadow

NEE:

net ecosystem exchange

PEN:

perennial Elymus nutans pasture

Re :

ecosystem respiration

SM:

seasonal average soil moisture at 5 cm

ST:

seasonal average soil temperature at 5 cm

TB:

total biomass

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810008, China

    C. -Y. Luo, X. -X. Zhu, S. -J. Cui, Z. -H. Zhang, L. Zhao, Y. Li & X. -Q. Zhao

  2. Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    S. -P. Wang

  3. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Science, Beijing, 100101, China

    S. -P. Wang

  4. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    X. -X. Zhu, S. -J. Cui, Z. -H. Zhang & X. -Y. Bao

Authors
  1. C. -Y. Luo
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  2. X. -X. Zhu
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  3. S. -P. Wang
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  4. S. -J. Cui
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  5. Z. -H. Zhang
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  6. X. -Y. Bao
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  7. L. Zhao
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  8. Y. Li
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  9. X. -Q. Zhao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. -P. Wang.

Additional information

Acknowledgements: This research was funded by the National Basic Research Programs (2013CB956000), Strategic Priority Research Programs (A) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ((XDA05070205), and the Science and Technology Bureau of Qinghai (2012-Z-918Q), and the National Science and Technology Support Program (2012BAD13B01 and 2014BAC05B04). We are grateful to Dr. Andreas Wilkes who helped us with the language. We thank the anonymous reviewers and associate editor for their important suggestions which contributed to a significantly improved manuscript.

C.-Y. Luo and X.-X. Zhu made equal contribution to this paper.

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Luo, C.Y., Zhu, X.X., Wang, S.P. et al. Ecosystem carbon exchange under different land use on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. Photosynthetica 53, 527–536 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-015-0142-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-015-0142-1

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