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

Liping Cheng, Beibei Zhang (), Hui Zhang and Jiajia Li
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Liping Cheng: College of Tourism and Management, Pingdingshan University, Pingdingshan 467000, China
Beibei Zhang: College of Tourism and Management, Pingdingshan University, Pingdingshan 467000, China
Hui Zhang: Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Disaster Monitoring and Mechanism Simulating, Baoji University of Arts and Sciences, Baoji 721013, China
Jiajia Li: College of Tourism and Management, Pingdingshan University, Pingdingshan 467000, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-15

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 δ 13 C and intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi) under five alpine grassland types while the highest mean values of foliar δ 13 C 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: alpine grassland; biomass; C stocks; N stocks; water use efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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