[Soil Degradation-Associated Microbial Community Structure Changes in an Alpine Meadow Under Tibetan Pig Herding].

Anthropic activities lead to a high risk of peatland degradation in the alpine regions. Along with the declined plant productivity and the impaired functioning of the soil carbon sink, the diversity and structure of soil microbial communities are also affected in a degraded peatland ecosystem. Tibetan pig herding is a unique peatland management strategy, which can significantly affect the peatland ecosystem, but it has been rarely studied.

[Response of seed reproduction of two dominant lakeside species to experimental warming in a typical plateau wetland in Northwestern Yunnan Plateau, China].

Based on the forecasted warming scenarios by IPCC, we studied the impacts of warming (increased by 2.0 and 3.5 ℃) on seed reproduction of two lakeside dominant species (Schoeno-plectus tabernaemontani and Sparganium stoloniferum) in a typical plateau wetland (Napahai) in Northwestern Yunnan, by using "open-top chamber" technique.

[The relative contributions of plant quality, simulated rising temperature, and habitat to litter decomposition.].

With litter bag methods, we examined mass loss rates and different chemical fractions of litters from two wetland plant species, Zizania caduciflora and Hippuris vulgaris. Those two species examined here varied significantly in their initial litter chemical traits. Experiment was performed under simulated rising temperature (1.

[Reinvasion of exotic plant species Spartina alterniflora in Chongming Dongtan Nature Reserve of Shanghai].

A demonstration plot in Chongming Dongtan for controlling exotic plant species Spartina alterniflora by using an integrated treatment technique of tussock cutting plus water level controlling was selected to make a 2-year monitoring on the reinvasion process of this plant species. A large number of S. alterniflora seedlings could proliferate and settle down in the hydrological restoring plots by tidal water in spring, and, after two years, the reinvasion community was established, with no obvious differences in its density as compared to the communities in neighboring areas.

[Ecological restoration effect of closed and half-closed degraded wetlands in Northwest Yunnan Plateau, Southwest China].

Selecting the restoration site of Napahai, a representative degraded wetland in Northwest Yunnan Plateau, as test object, a comparative study was made on the changes of plant community species composition, water quality, and soil organic matter (OM) and total nitrogen (TN) contents within stream way, meadow, and lakeside before and after vegetation restoration, aimed to verify the effectiveness of integrated ecosystem restoration at catchment scale. In the early restoration period, the plants at the study site increased from 13 to 28 species, 12 to 22 genera, and 8 to 18 families, and the aboveground biomass increased from 318.56 g x m(-2) to 507.