Belowground Bud Bank Distribution and Aboveground Community Characteristics along Different Moisture Gradients of Alpine Meadow in the Zoige Plateau, China

Xinjing Ding, Peixi Su, Zijuan Zhou and Rui Shi
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Xinjing Ding: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
Peixi Su: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
Zijuan Zhou: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
Rui Shi: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Donggang West Road, Lanzhou 730000, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: The belowground bud bank plays an important role in plant communities succession and maintenance. In order to understand the response of the bud bank to the sod layer moisture, we investigated the bud bank distribution, size, and composition of six different water gradient alpine meadows through excavating in the Zoige Plateau. The results showed: (1) The alpine meadow plant belowground buds were mainly distributed in the 0–10 cm sod layer, accounting for 74.2%–100% of the total. The total bud density of the swamp wetland and degraded meadow was the highest (16567.9 bud/m 3 ) and the lowest (4839.5 bud/m 3 ). (2) A decrease of the moisture plant diversity showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing. Among six alpine meadows the swamp meadow plant diversity was the highest, and species richness, Simpson, Shannon–Wiener, and Pielou were 10.333, 0.871, 0.944, and 0.931, respectively. (3) The moisture was significantly positively correlated with the total belowground buds and short rhizome bud density. There were significant positive correlations with sod layer moisture and tiller bulb bud density. This study indicates that the moisture affected bud bank distribution and composition in the plant community, and the results provide important information for predicting plant community succession in the alpine meadow with future changes in precipitation patterns.

Keywords: alpine meadow; belowground bud bank; moisture; plant community; sod layer; Zoige Plateau (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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