New Zealand Journal of
Agricultural Research abstracts
Effect of grazing intensity on
clonal morphological plasticity and
biomass allocation patterns of Artemisia
frigida and Potentilla
acaulis in the Inner Mongolia
steppe
Li Jinhua1,2
Li Zhenqing2
Ren Jizhou3
1Key
Laboratory of Arid and
Grassland Agroecology
Lanzhou
University
Ministry of Education
Lanzhou 730000, PR China
email: lijinhuap@sohu.com
2Institute
of Botany,
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing 100093,
PR China
3Gansu
Grassland Ecological
Research Institute
Lanzhou 730020,
PR China
Abstract Morphological
traits and biomass
allocation patterns of Artemisia
frigida and Potentilla
acaulis under different grazing
intensities were studied at the
Inner Mongolia
Grassland
Ecosystem Research Station of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences (43°26′–44°08′N,
116°04′–117°05′E). The internode length, branching
intensity
and biomass allocation responded significantly to grazing intensities. Artemisia
frigida had the longest and the
shortest internode length under no
grazing and moderate grazing respectively. Potentilla
acaulis
had the longest internode length under light grazing and its internodes
shortened significantly under heavy grazing. Branching intensities of
both species rose with increasing grazing intensity. Population total
biomass in Artemisia frigida decreased
while that in Potentilla
acaulis decreased firstly and
then increased with increasing
grazing intensity. The above-ground biomass and root/shoot ratio in Artemisia
frigida decreased significantly
with increasing grazing intensity,
while that of Potentilla
acaulis increased. Biomass
allocations
to structural components of these two species were different.
Differences in morphological plasticity and biomass allocation patterns
of these two species indicated that they had different ecological
strategies to grazing.
Potentilla acaulis was more
adapted to
heavy grazing than Artemisia
frigida. Communities of Leymus
chinensis and Stipa
grandis may finally converge to
a Potentilla
acaulis community under
continuous over-grazing, and eventually
turn to desert.
Keywords ecological
adaptation; grazing intensity;
Artemisia frigida; Potentilla
acaulis; plasticity; biomass
allocation
A04005;
Received 16 January
2004; accepted 10 September 2004; Online
publication date 21 March 2005
New
Zealand Journal of
Agricultural Research, 2005, Vol. 48:
57–61
0028–8233/05/4801–0057 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2005
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