Effects of Nitrogen Forms on Soil Enzyme Activities in a Saline-Alkaline Grassland.

Global climate change and agricultural practices have increased atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, significantly affecting the nitrogen cycling process in grasslands. The impact of different N forms on key soil enzyme activities involved in N nitrification, particularly in the saline-alkali grasslands of the Hexi Corridor, using natural grassland as a control (CK) and adding three N treatments: inorganic N (IN), organic N (ON) and a mixed N treatment (MN, with a 4:6 ratio of organic to inorganic N). Our study assessed the effects of these N forms on soil properties and enzyme activities crucial for N cycling.

Variation and association of leaf traits for desert plants in the arid area, northwest China.

Characterizing variation and association of plant traits is critical for understanding plant adaptation strategies and community assembly mechanisms. However, little is known about the leaf trait variations of desert plants and their association with different life forms. We used principal component analysis, Pearson's correlation, phylogenetic independent contrasts, linear mixed model, and variance decomposition to explore the variation and association of 10 leaf traits in 22 desert plants in the arid area of northwest China.

Changes in soil carbon fractions and enzyme activities under different vegetation types of the northern Loess Plateau.

Knowledge of the soil organic carbon components and enzyme activities during long-term natural vegetation restoration is essential for managing the restoration of vegetation. In this study, the variations of soil organic carbon components (i.e.

Drought conditions alter litter decomposition and nutrient release of litter types in an agroforestry system of China.

Evaluating how decomposition rates and litter nutrient release of different litter types respond to changes in water conditions is crucial for understanding global carbon and nutrient cycling. However, it is unclear how decreasing water affects litter mixture interactions for the maize-poplar system in arid regions. Here, the responses of the litter decomposition process and litter mixture interactions in the agroforestry system to changes in water conditions (control, light drought, and moderate drought) were tested.

Response of soil organic carbon to vegetation degradation along a moisture gradient in a wet meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The study was conducted during the growing seasons of 2013, 2014, and 2015 in the wet meadows on the eastern Qinghai-Tibet plateau (QTP) in the Gansu Gahai Wetland Nature Reserve to determine the dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) as affected by vegetation degradation along a moisture gradient and to assess its relationship with other soil properties and biomass yield. Hence, we measured SOC at depths of 0-10, 10-20, and 20-40 cm under the influence of four categories of vegetation degradation (healthy vegetation [HV], slightly degraded [SD], moderately degraded [MD], and heavily degraded [HD]). Our results showed that SOC decreased with increased degree of vegetation degradation.

Prolonged dry periods between rainfall events shorten the growth period of the resurrection plant .

The resurrection plant is widespread across Asia, southern Europe, and North Africa and is considered to be a constructive keystone species in desert ecosystems, but the impacts of climate change on this species in desert ecosystems are unclear. Here, the morphological responses of to changes in rainfall quantity (30% reduction and 30% increase in rainfall quantity) and interval (50% longer drought interval between rainfall events) were tested. Stage-specific changes in growth were monitored by sampling at the beginning, middle, and end of the growing season.