Positive Grass Diversity-Productivity Relationships and Controlling Factors along an Elevation Gradient in Central Asian Alpine Grasslands

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has received considerable attention in ecological science since the 1990s. Understanding productivity-diversity relationships is important for studying biodiversity-ecosystem functioning. Some hypotheses have been proposed to explain the pattern of productivity diversity relationships, but these mechanisms cannot explain all the patterns or variations satisfactorily. Researching on productivity and diversity in the natural environment is necessary.

In order to determine the key environmental factors which control the productivity-diversity relationships along an altitudinal gradient in alpine grassland, LI Kaihui et al. conducted ecological experiment in the Bayinbuluk alpine grasslands of the Southern Tianshan Mountains of Central Asia.

They carried out a three-year investigation from 2005 to 2007 along an elevation gradient in an area of 70×20 km² at Bayinbuluk, Tianshan Mountains. They selected 9 sites (10×10 m²) and 117 plots (1×1 m²) from 2460 to 3260 m a.s.l. with 100 m intervals of altitude. Species richness, productivity, soil characteristics, air temperature and relative humidity (May–August) were recorded. Researchers used ordination techniques such as Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) to examine the relationships between vegetation and the environmental factors. The results showed that plant species composition, species richness and productivity were significantly affected by air temperature, soil pH and relative humidity across the study area. The related research has been published on Polish Journal of Ecology, 2012, 60(1): 123-131. The paper can be downloaded from http://www.pol.j.ecol.cbe-pan.pl/abstract/ab60_1_09.pdf.

This research was supported financially by the “Hundred Talents Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant 304), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41005001) and the National Basic Research Program of China (2009CB825103).