Abstract
Aims Adaptation of plants to their habitats through phenotypic plasticity in which they trade off various kinds of functional traits is an important ecological strategy. Whereas plant functional traits and its effects on grassland ecosystem functioning have received much attention, the importance of grazing effects on functional traits is poorly understood. This study, therefore, aimed to analyze the responding model of Leymus chinensis functional traits to long-term grazing in semi-arid grassland. Methods The study was conducted in a field experiment involving treatments with various grazing and enclosure schemes in Nei Mongol. We compared the effects of long-term enclosure, short-term enclosure (SE), moderate grazing (MG), and heavy grazing on plant functional traits in L. chinensis. Partial Least Squares Regression was used to analyze the contributions of controlling factors on changes in biomass in response to grazing. Important findings The size of L. chinensis became smaller in plots subject to long-term grazing compared with in the plots of enclosures. It had a significant conservative property of plant dwarf which can be found in the SE plot. Interestingly, the variability increased significantly with the increasing of plasticity index of different functional traits. Also, some functional traits, such as aboveground biomass, plant height, mean leaf length etc., were sensitive traits to grazing. However, other indicators, such as leaf numbers, stem diameter, mean leaf width etc., which were inert functional traits. Stem length, plant height and other traits were main factors which cased the decreasing of L. chinensis aboveground biomass. On the whole, phenotypic change is an important adaptive strategy of L. chinensis to long term grazing.
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Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
Long-term grazing made L. chinensis smaller than enclosure.
Verbatim
e0“The size of L. chinensis became smaller in plots subject to long-term grazing compared with in the plots of enclosures.”
Claim · model-written summary
Short-term enclosure plots showed significant plant dwarfing.
- Taxon
- Leymus chinensisLeymus chinensist0
- Outcome
- plant dwarfe0
- Setting
- SE plote0
Verbatim
t0“Leymus chinensis”
e0“It had a significant conservative property of plant dwarf which can be found in the SE plot.”
Claim · model-written summary
Functional trait variability increased significantly with plasticity index.
- Taxon
- Leymus chinensisLeymus chinensist0
- Outcome
- variabilitye0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Qualifier
- plasticity index of different functional traitse0
Verbatim
t0“Leymus chinensis”
e0“the variability increased significantly with the increasing of plasticity index of different functional traits.”
Claim · model-written summary
Aboveground biomass, plant height, and mean leaf length were sensitive to grazing.
- Taxon
- Leymus chinensisLeymus chinensist0
- Treatment
- grazinge0
- Outcome
- aboveground biomass, plant height, mean leaf lengthe0
Verbatim
t0“Leymus chinensis”
e0“aboveground biomass, plant height, mean leaf length etc., were sensitive traits to grazing.”
Claim · model-written summary
Leaf number, stem diameter and mean leaf width were inert grazing response traits.
- Taxon
- Leymus chinensisLeymus chinensist0
- Outcome
- leaf numbers, stem diameter, mean leaf widthe0
Verbatim
t0“Leymus chinensis”
e0“leaf numbers, stem diameter, mean leaf width etc., which were inert functional traits.”
Claim · model-written summary
Stem length and plant height were main factors linked to declining aboveground biomass.
Verbatim
e0“Stem length, plant height and other traits were main factors which cased the decreasing of L. chinensis aboveground biomass.”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors identify phenotypic change as an adaptive strategy under long-term grazing.
- Taxon
- L. chinensisLeymus chinensise0
- Outcome
- adaptive strategye0
- Qualifier
- phenotypic changee0
Verbatim
e0“phenotypic change is an important adaptive strategy of L. chinensis to long term grazing.”
The same questions in other papers
grazing · growth · Leymus chinensisPositive and negative results
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