Grassland Carbon Budget and Its Driving Factors of the Subtropical and Tropical Monsoon Region in China During 1961 to 2013.

The southern grasslands are an integral part of the grassland ecosystems of China and play an essential role in the terrestrial carbon cycle of the country. We reproduced the spatiotemporal dynamics of the carbon budget of southern grasslands from 1961 to 2013 using the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model and our results showed that the annual carbon budget varied from -8.12 to 6.

Apparent plasticity in functional traits determining competitive ability and spatial distribution: a case from desert.

Species competitive abilities and their distributions are closely related to functional traits such as biomass allocation patterns. When we consider how nutrient supply affects competitive abilities, quantifying the apparent and true plasticity in functional traits is important because the allometric relationships among traits are universal in plants. We propose to integrate the notion of allometry and the classical reaction norm into a composite theoretical framework that quantifies the apparent and true plasticity.

[Variation in soil Mn fractions as affected by long-term manure amendment using atomic absorption spectrophotometer in a typical grassland of inner Mongolia].

The effect of sheep manure amendment on soil manganese fractions was conducted in a 11 year experiment at inner Mongolia grassland, using sequential extraction procedure in modified Community Bureau of Reference, and determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Five treatments with dry sheep manure addition rate 0, 50, 250, 750, and 1500 g x m(-2) x yr(-1), respectively, were carried out in this experiment. Results showed that the recovery rate for total Mn was 91.

[Effects of plant functional groups removal on the soil carbon, nitrogen pools in a Leymus chinensis community of typical steppe in Inner Mongolia].

A field plant functional groups (PFGs) removal experiment was conducted in 2005-2007 to study the effects of plant diversity in a Leymus chinensis community of typical steppe in Inner Mongolia on the topsoil (0-10 cm) carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools. In the three successive years, the topsoil total C and N contents had a slight change (< 15%). They changed little in 2005, but were significantly higher in 2006 than in 2007 (P < 0.