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Stoichiometric ratios support plant adaption to grazing moderated by soil nutrients and root enzymes
BACKGROUND: Vegetation succession is one of the major driving processes of grassland degradation. Stoichiometry significantly contributes to vegetation dynamics. However, a knowledge gap exists in how soil nutrients and root enzymes influence the stoichiometric ratio to affect vegetation dynamics. M...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6563791/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31218124 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7047 |
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author | Ma, Wenjing Li, Jin Jimoh, Saheed Olaide Zhang, Yujuan Guo, Fenghui Ding, Yong Li, Xiliang Hou, Xiangyang |
author_facet | Ma, Wenjing Li, Jin Jimoh, Saheed Olaide Zhang, Yujuan Guo, Fenghui Ding, Yong Li, Xiliang Hou, Xiangyang |
author_sort | Ma, Wenjing |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Vegetation succession is one of the major driving processes of grassland degradation. Stoichiometry significantly contributes to vegetation dynamics. However, a knowledge gap exists in how soil nutrients and root enzymes influence the stoichiometric ratio to affect vegetation dynamics. METHODS: To address these questions, we selected a dominant species (Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvel.) and a degraded-dominant species (Artemisia frigida Willd.) under different management regimes (enclosure and grazing) on the Inner Mongolia steppe. We measured (i) plant nutrient concentrations, (ii) root enzymes and (iii) soil nutrients to investigate how the selected plant species responded to grazing. RESULTS: The results show that: (i) N and P concentrations and the C:N:P ratio in different organs are significantly affected by grazing, and there is variation in the plant species’ response. Grazing significantly increased N and P in the leaves and stems of L. chinensis and the stems and roots of A. frigida. (ii) Grazing significantly increased the activities of glutamine synthase but decreased the activities of acid phosphatase in L. chinensis. The nitrate reductase and acid phosphatase activities significantly increased in A. frigida under grazing conditions. (iii) Grazing decreased the total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and available nitrogen, but increased the available phosphorus in the soil. CONCLUSION: We conclude that A. frigida is better adapted to grazing than L. chinensis, possibly because of its relatively increased stem and root growth, which enhance population expansion following grazing. Conversely, L. chinensis showed increased leaf and stem growth, but suffered nutrient and biomass loss as a result of excessive foraging by livestock, which severely affected its ability to colonize. Root enzymes coupled with soil nutrients can regulate plant nutrients and stoichiometric ratios as an adaptive response to grazing. Thus, we demonstrated that stoichiometric ratios allow species to better withstand grazing disturbances. This study provides a new understanding of the mechanisms involved in grazing-resistance within a plant-soil system. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6563791 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-65637912019-06-19 Stoichiometric ratios support plant adaption to grazing moderated by soil nutrients and root enzymes Ma, Wenjing Li, Jin Jimoh, Saheed Olaide Zhang, Yujuan Guo, Fenghui Ding, Yong Li, Xiliang Hou, Xiangyang PeerJ Ecology BACKGROUND: Vegetation succession is one of the major driving processes of grassland degradation. Stoichiometry significantly contributes to vegetation dynamics. However, a knowledge gap exists in how soil nutrients and root enzymes influence the stoichiometric ratio to affect vegetation dynamics. METHODS: To address these questions, we selected a dominant species (Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvel.) and a degraded-dominant species (Artemisia frigida Willd.) under different management regimes (enclosure and grazing) on the Inner Mongolia steppe. We measured (i) plant nutrient concentrations, (ii) root enzymes and (iii) soil nutrients to investigate how the selected plant species responded to grazing. RESULTS: The results show that: (i) N and P concentrations and the C:N:P ratio in different organs are significantly affected by grazing, and there is variation in the plant species’ response. Grazing significantly increased N and P in the leaves and stems of L. chinensis and the stems and roots of A. frigida. (ii) Grazing significantly increased the activities of glutamine synthase but decreased the activities of acid phosphatase in L. chinensis. The nitrate reductase and acid phosphatase activities significantly increased in A. frigida under grazing conditions. (iii) Grazing decreased the total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and available nitrogen, but increased the available phosphorus in the soil. CONCLUSION: We conclude that A. frigida is better adapted to grazing than L. chinensis, possibly because of its relatively increased stem and root growth, which enhance population expansion following grazing. Conversely, L. chinensis showed increased leaf and stem growth, but suffered nutrient and biomass loss as a result of excessive foraging by livestock, which severely affected its ability to colonize. Root enzymes coupled with soil nutrients can regulate plant nutrients and stoichiometric ratios as an adaptive response to grazing. Thus, we demonstrated that stoichiometric ratios allow species to better withstand grazing disturbances. This study provides a new understanding of the mechanisms involved in grazing-resistance within a plant-soil system. PeerJ Inc. 2019-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6563791/ /pubmed/31218124 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7047 Text en ©2019 Ma et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Ecology Ma, Wenjing Li, Jin Jimoh, Saheed Olaide Zhang, Yujuan Guo, Fenghui Ding, Yong Li, Xiliang Hou, Xiangyang Stoichiometric ratios support plant adaption to grazing moderated by soil nutrients and root enzymes |
title | Stoichiometric ratios support plant adaption to grazing moderated by soil nutrients and root enzymes |
title_full | Stoichiometric ratios support plant adaption to grazing moderated by soil nutrients and root enzymes |
title_fullStr | Stoichiometric ratios support plant adaption to grazing moderated by soil nutrients and root enzymes |
title_full_unstemmed | Stoichiometric ratios support plant adaption to grazing moderated by soil nutrients and root enzymes |
title_short | Stoichiometric ratios support plant adaption to grazing moderated by soil nutrients and root enzymes |
title_sort | stoichiometric ratios support plant adaption to grazing moderated by soil nutrients and root enzymes |
topic | Ecology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6563791/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31218124 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7047 |
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