Belowground biomass of alpine shrublands across the northeast Tibetan Plateau.

ABSTRACT: Although belowground biomass (BGB) plays an important role in global cycling, the storage of BGB and climatic effects on it are remaining unclear. With data from 49 sites, we aimed to investigate BGB and its climatic controls in alpine shrublands in the Tibetan Plateau. Our study showed that the BGB (both grass-layer and shrub-layer biomass) storage in the alpine shrublands was 67.24 Tg, and the mean BGB density and shrublands area were 1,567.38 g/m² and 4.29 × 10⁴ km², respectively. Shrub layer had a larger BGB stock and accounted for 66% of total BGB this area, while only 34% was accumulated in the grass layer. BGB of the grass layer in the Tibetan Plateau shrublands was larger than that of Tibetan alpine grasslands, indicating that shrubland ecosystem pl

SUBMITTER: Xiuqing N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7319123 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature