Abstract
Climate change predominated by warming over the past decades has affected plant biodiversity, distribution, and ecosystem functioning in alpine grasslands. Yet, little is known about the interactive effect of climate change and grazing on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Here, we conducted a vegetation translocation experiment (ten soil‐vegetation blocks were translocated from high‐altitudinal site 3,245 m to low‐altitudinal site 3,045 m) combined with grazing treatment in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that (a) translocation induced effect of climate change from harsh, high‐altitudinal site to benign, low‐altitudinal site significantly promoted species richness, and density of asexual and sexual seedling, with an increase in the proportion of asexual recruitment to sexual recruitment; (b) grazing decreased the proportion of asexual seedling to sexual recruitment within community, led to a shift in the dominant plant functional groups from graminoids and legumes to forbs; and (c) grazing partly offset the increased species richness of seedling, but not seedling density, induced by climate change. These findings suggest that moderate grazing may buffer the effect of climate change on the plant community composition, and thus, functional role in alpine meadows. Further understanding the influence of climate change on grassland ecosystems needs to consider the non‐additive effect of grazing and climate change to sustainability of grassland services.
Highlights
The global average temperature has increased by 0.065°C per de‐ cade since 1880 (IPCC, 2013)
In alpine meadows seedling recruitment patterns have remained unclear (Chambers, 1995; Forbis, 2003). Before this re‐ search, we propose the following hypothesis: (a) seedling density determines species richness (Henry, Stevens, & Carson, 1999); (b) cli‐ mate change could decrease species richness and increase seedlings density (Arft et al, 1999; Klein et al, 2007; Post & Pedersen, 2008); (c) grazing could cause plant dominant functional groups changed from graminoids with asexual reproduction to forbs with sexual re‐ production (Forbis, 2003)
Our study added new evidence that global climate change has a positive impact on seedling species richness and den‐ sity in alpine meadows
Summary
The global average temperature has increased by 0.065°C per de‐ cade since 1880 (IPCC, 2013). Previous reports on global climate change or grazing dis‐ turbance mostly concentrated on the plant community structures, species composition, soil nutrient dynamics, and aboveground net primary productivity in alpine grasslands There is still much unknown about the response of plant diversity and ecosystem functioning to the joint effect of climate change and grazing disturbance in the alpine meadow ecosystem
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