Effects of rainfall manipulation and nitrogen addition on plant biomass allocation in a semiarid sandy grassland.

ABSTRACT: Extreme climate events and nitrogen (N) deposition are increasingly affecting the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems. However, the response of plant biomass to variations to these global change drivers is still unclear in semi-arid regions, especially in degraded sandy grasslands. In this study, a manipulative field experiment run over two years (from 2017 to 2018) was conducted to examine the effect of rainfall alteration and nitrogen addition on biomass allocation of annuals and perennial plants in Horqin sandy grassland, Northern China. Our experiment simulated extreme rainfall and extreme drought (a 60% reduction or increment in the growing season rainfall with respect to a control background) and N addition (20 g/m²) during the growing seasons. We found that t

SUBMITTER: Zhang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7270118 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature