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Short-term yak-grazing alters plant-soil stoichiometric relations in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

Background and aims

Over-grazing have significantly altered above- and belowground functions in terrestrial ecosystem. However, the influence of grazing intensity on plant-soil stoichiometric relations in alpine ecosystems remains unclear.

Methods

We investigated the responses of plant-soil nutrient stoichiometric relationships to four grazing intensities (un-grazing (UG), light grazing (LG), moderate grazing (MG) and heavy grazing (HG)) in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. We measured carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) concentrations and their ratios in plants and soils in the peak growing season after three years of yak-grazing.

Results

Compared to UG and LG plots, heavier grazing intensity at community levels and taxonomic groups decreased plant C and K concentrations by 7.6–10.5% and 17.6–21.3%, respectively, while grazing did not significantly influence plant N and P concentrations. Grazing intensity altered plant C:N and C:P ratios but not C:K and N:P ratios. By contrast, grazing intensity had no significant effects on soil nutrients and stoichiometry. Thus, the differential responses of plant and soil nutrients to grazing intensity caused that plants were more sensitive to grazing than soils.

Conclusions

Our results confirm that grazing intensity has differential effects on plant and soil nutrients, implying that plant nutrients do not covary with soil nutrients under changing grazing intensity and challenging the past positive relations between plant and soil nutrients. Further long-term grazing experiments are required to understand the drivers of grazing effect on plant-soil nutrient interactions.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate the support and assistance by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Base of Southwest Minzu University. This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0504806 and 2016YFC0501804); National Natural Science Foundation of China (31700392); Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2018JY0541); Open Foundation of Lanzhou University State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; Collaborative Innovation Center for Ecological Animal Husbandry of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Open Foundation and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2018NQN46).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Bio-resource and Eco-environment of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Tserang Donko Mipam, Jianquan Liu & Liming Tian

  2. Institute of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Tserang Donko Mipam

  3. State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, Institute of Innovation Ecology & School of Life Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Tserang Donko Mipam & Jianquan Liu

  4. College of Life Science and Technology, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, 6110041, China

    Shiyong Chen

  5. Faculty of Geography, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Georg Miehe

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  1. Tserang Donko Mipam
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Correspondence to Liming Tian.

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Mipam, T.D., Chen, S., Liu, J. et al. Short-term yak-grazing alters plant-soil stoichiometric relations in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Plant Soil 458, 125–137 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-04401-6

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