Soil Nutrient and Vegetation Diversity Patterns of Alpine Wetlands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Muyuan Ma, Yaojun Zhu, Yuanyun Wei and Nana Zhao
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Muyuan Ma: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Research Institute of Wetland, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Yaojun Zhu: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Research Institute of Wetland, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Yuanyun Wei: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Research Institute of Wetland, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Nana Zhao: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Research Institute of Wetland, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: To predict the consequences of environmental change on the biodiversity of alpine wetlands, it is necessary to understand the relationship between soil properties and vegetation biodiversity. In this study, we investigated spatial patterns of aboveground vegetation biomass, cover, species diversity, and their relationships with soil properties in the alpine wetlands of the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China. Furthermore, the relative contribution of soil properties to vegetation biomass, cover, and species diversity were compared using principal component analysis and multiple regression analysis. Generally, the relationship between plant biomass, coverage, diversity, and soil nutrients was linear or unimodal. Soil pH, bulk density and organic carbon were also significantly correlated to plant diversity. The soil attributes differed in their relative contribution to changes in plant productivity and diversity. pH had the highest contribution to vegetation biomass and species richness, while total nitrogen was the highest contributor to vegetation cover and nitrogen–phosphorus ratio (N:P) was the highest contributor to diversity. Both vegetation productivity and diversity were closely related to soil properties, and soil pH and the N:P ratio play particularly important roles in wetland vegetation biomass, cover, and diversity.

Keywords: plant species diversity; plant biomass; vegetation cover; soil nutrients; Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau; alpine wetlands; nitrogen; phosphorus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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