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. 2022 Oct 11;19(20):13026.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192013026.

Biomass, Carbon and Nitrogen Partitioning and Water Use Efficiency Differences of Five Types of Alpine Grasslands in the Northern Tibetan Plateau

Liping Cheng  1 , Beibei Zhang  1   2 , Hui Zhang  2 , Jiajia Li  1
Affiliations

Biomass, Carbon and Nitrogen Partitioning and Water Use Efficiency Differences of Five Types of Alpine Grasslands in the Northern Tibetan Plateau

Liping Cheng et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

(1) Background: Grassland covers most areas of the northern Tibetan Plateau along with important global terrestrial carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools, so there is a need to better understand the different alpine grassland growth associated with ecosystem C, N storage and water use efficiency (WUE). (2) Methods: The plant biomass and C, N concentrations, stocks and vegetation WUE of five kinds of alpine grassland types were investigated in northern Tibetan Plateau. (3) Results: The results showed that there were significant differences among five types of alpine grasslands in aboveground biomass (AGB), belowground biomass (BGB), total biomass (TB) and root:shoot (R/S) ratio while the highest value of different indices was shown in alpine meadow type (AM). The AGB and BGB partitioning results significantly satisfied the allometric biomass partitioning theory. The C, N concentrations and C/N of the vegetation in AGB and BGB showed significant grassland type differences. The highest C, N stocks of BGB were in AM which was almost six or seven times more than the C, N stocks of AGB in alpine desert type (AD). There were significant differences in δ13C and intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi) under five alpine grassland types while the highest mean values of foliar δ13C and WUEi were in AD. Significant negative correlations were found between WUEi and C, N concentrations, C/N of AGB and soil water content (SWC) while the correlation with BGB C/N was not significant. For AGB, BGB, TB and R/S, there were positive correlations with C, N concentrations of AGB, BGB and SWC while it had significant negative correlations with C/N of BGB. (4) Conclusions: With regard to its types, it is suggested that the AM or AS may be an actively growing grassland type in the northern Tibetan Plateau.

Keywords: C stocks; N stocks; alpine grassland; biomass; water use efficiency.

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Conflict of interest statement

All the authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Research areas and sampling sites.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The Empirical regression model between belowground biomass (BGB) and aboveground biomass (AGB) in 5 alpine grassland types. The α and β values presented in each figure were mean ± standard errors. (A): alpine meadow (AM), (B): alpine steppe (AS), (C): alpine meadow steppe (AMS), (D): alpine desert steppe (ADS), (E): alpine desert (AD) and (F): alpine grassland types.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The frequency distribution of C, N concentrations and C/N of belowground biomass (BGB) and aboveground biomass (AGB) in 5 alpine grassland types. (A): alpine meadow (AM), (B): alpine steppe (AS), (C): alpine meadow steppe (AMS), (D): alpine desert steppe (ADS), (E): alpine desert (AD) and (F): alpine grassland types.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The frequency distribution of C, N concentrations and C/N of belowground biomass (BGB) and aboveground biomass (AGB) in 5 alpine grassland types. (A): alpine meadow (AM), (B): alpine steppe (AS), (C): alpine meadow steppe (AMS), (D): alpine desert steppe (ADS), (E): alpine desert (AD) and (F): alpine grassland types.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The δ13C, Carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) and intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi) of aboveground biomass (AGB) in 5 alpine grassland types. Letters are reported only for significant differences in one-way ANOVA post hoc Tukey’s HSD.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Redundancy analysis (RDA) of biomass, WUEi and C, N concentration, soil water content in 5 alpine grassland types. Aboveground biomass (AGB), Belowground biomass (BGB), total biomass (TB), BGB to AGB ratio (R/S), carbon concentration of AGB (AGBC), carbon concentration of BGB (BGBC), nitrogen concentration of AGB (AGBN), nitrogen concentration of BGB (BGBN), C to N ratio of AGB (AGBC/N), C to N ratio of BGB (BGBC/N), soil water content (SWC) and intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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