Changes in Biomass and Quality of Alpine Steppe in Response to N & P Fertilization in the Tibetan Plateau

作者：Junfu Dong, Xiaoyong Cui, Shuping Wang, Shuping Wang, Fang Wang, Zhe Pang, Ning Xu, Guoqiang Zhao, Shiping Wang, Shiping Wang · 发表于：PLoS ONE · 年份：2016 · DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0156146 · 被引用次数：24 · 研究领域：Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology、Ruminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology

In the alpine steppe zone on the Central Tibetan Plateau, a large amount of area has been degraded due to natural and artificial factors. N & P fertilization is widely accepted to recover degraded pastures in other regions all over the world. However, it is not clear how alpine steppe communities respond to N & P fertilization, and what is the optimal application rate, in the perspective of forage production. To attempt to explore these questions, in July 2013, two fencing sites were designed in Baingoin County with 12 treatments of different levels of nitrogen (N0: 0; N1: 7.5 g m(-2) yr(-1); N2: 15 g m(-2) yr(-1)) & phosphate (P0: 0; P1: 7.5 gP2O5 m(-2) yr(-1); P2: 15 gP2O5 m(-2) yr(-1); P3: 30 gP2O5 m(-2) yr(-1)). The results indicated N&P addition was capable to ameliorate the quality of the two sites in the Tibetan Plateau steppe. Increasing N application level resulted in significant increment in Gramineae and total biomass in the two sites. P addition significantly improved the quantity of Compositae, total biomass and the biomasss of other species in site II, while it only significantly improved the total biomass in site I. Gramineae was much more sensitive to N-induced changes than P-induced changes, and this indicated N addition was better to ameliorate the quality of plateau steppe than P-induced changes. No strong evidence was found for critical threshold within 15 g N m(-2) yr(-1), and there was decreasing tendency when P addition rate was above 15 g m(-2) yr(-1)....