Meadow Grassland Research Articles

Dominant plants mediate effects of grazing on soil nematode traits in a wet meadow grassland

Grazing is an integral disturbance in grassland ecosystems, however, its effects on belowground ecosystems are poorly understood. As the extent and quality of grasslands continue to decline around the world, metrics are required to monitor the effects of grazing on the function of rangeland soils. Soil nematodes are an important group of soil biota used to understand soil function. However, traditional approaches that rely on indices based on life-history information of soil nematodes have been supplemented in recent literature with trait-based analyses. Here, we test how changes in the structure and composition of soil nematode communities relate to grazing. We collected and measured morphological and reproductive traits of dominant genera of soil nematodes in a wet meadow grassland in Manitoba, Canada, to test how grazing alters trait profiles of nematode communities. For ten genera of soil nematodes, representing 80 % of community abundance, we measured morphometric traits, including body length and mass and used published literature to collect data describing reproductive traits. Communities of free-living nematodes were dominated by bacteriovore and root feeding genera and grazing intensity decreased the richness, diversity, and evenness of soil nematode communities. However, we observed no significant differences in the feeding structure of nematode communities based on the timing or intensity of grazing and no effect of grazing on mean trait values of the most abundant genera of soil nematodes. In contrast, changes in the community weighted means of nematode traits were strongly related to the abundance of dominant vegetation. We discuss the potential effects of changes in soil nematode communities on the function of wet grassland soils. Results from our research indicate that sustainable management and restoration of wet meadow rangelands must consider the impacts of grazing intensity on soil function and that plants play a key role in structuring the soil nematode communities belowground.

Response mechanisms of 3 typical plants nitrogen and phosphorus nutrient cycling to nitrogen deposition in temperate meadow grasslands.

The increase of nitrogen (N) deposition and the diversity of its components lead to significant changes in the structure and function of temperate meadow steppe, which could affect plant nutrient uptake, nutrient resorption and litter decomposition, thus affecting the biogeochemical cycle process. The distribution and metabolism of nitrogen and phosphorus in plants determine the growth process and productivity of plants. Plant nutrient uptake, nutrient resorption and litter decomposition play an important role in the nutrient cycling process of ecosystem. This study closely combined these three processes to carry out experiments with different nitrogen dosages and types, and systematically explored the response of nitrogen and phosphorus nutrient cycling to nitrogen deposition. The results showed that nitrogen deposition can greatly affect ecosystem nutrient cycle of nitrogen and phosphorus. Firstly, Nitrogen deposition has significant effect on plant nutrient uptake. Nitrogen uptake of stems and leaves increased with the increase of nitrogen addition dosage, while phosphorus uptake of stems and leaves showed a downward trend or no significant effect. Besides, nitrogen addition type had a significant effect on nitrogen and phosphorus content of stems. Secondly, Nitrogen addition dosage had a significant effect on plant nutrient resorption, while nitrogen addition type had no significant effect on it. Thirdly, nitrogen deposition has significant effect on litter decomposition. With the increase of nitrogen addition dosage, the initial nitrogen content of litters increased and the decomposition rate of litters accelerated. Nitrogen application type had significant effect on stem litter decomposition. These results indicated that nitrogen deposition significantly affects plant nutrient cycling, and thus affects the structure and function of grassland ecosystem.

A transformer-based image detection method for grassland situation of alpine meadows

As a vital role in climate regulation, water conservation, and maintenance of ecological balance, the alpine meadow grassland is facing the threat of degradation. Detecting grassland topography, phytomass, and grassland damage are important for improving the alpine meadow situation. This study reports a Transformer-CNN method for detecting alpine meadows situations using UnmannedAerial Vehicle (UAV) - based RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) data. This method combines Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF (ORB) and brute force feature matching to complete image stitching and then uses the proposed model Am-mask to complete the image segmentation task. The result shows that ORB feature matching is more stable and fast than SIFT and SURF for alpine meadow image stitching. In addition, Transformer has great application potential in grassland image detection and introducing task prefix and sparse in pre-training enhances the model’s robustness. The AP value of the Am-mask model with Transformer was as high as 95.4%, about 10% higher than that of the original CNN models. In the experiment with unstitched images, the average precision of the eight trials was 95.16%, the average recall was 95.13%, and the average F1 value was 95.14%. For stitched images, the average precision, recall, and F1 value of the eight trials were 91.83%, 91.81%, and 91.82%, respectively. It was proved that the proposed method could save the inference cost of the model under the condition of ensuring the detection effect. This study may contribute to grassland environmental protection in alpine meadows.

Vegetation Characteristics of the Main Grassland Types in China Respond Differently to the Duration of Enclosure: A Meta-Analysis

Enclosure is one of the useful measures to protect and restore degraded grasslands, and it is widely used around the world. The vegetation characteristics of grasslands directly reflect the recovery status of degraded grasslands; however, conflicting results of plant traits were continually achieved in the numerous on-site studies of enclosure in the last two decades. It is necessary to conduct a systematic assessment to find a general conclusion for the effects of enclosure on different grasslands. Studies on the enclosure grasslands in China were taken as the objects to refine the relationships between grassland vegetation characteristics and enclosure measures using meta-analysis. Enclosure had positive effects on the restoration of vegetation coverage, aboveground and belowground biomass, and diversity of degraded grasslands. Different vegetation characteristics and grassland types showed different responses to enclosure duration. The vegetation productivity reached a maximum in the 11–15 years of enclosure for alpine grasslands and typical steppe grasslands, 6–10 years for desert grasslands, and more than 15 years of enclosure for meadow grasslands. Plant species diversity reached the peak values when alpine grasslands and typical steppe grasslands were enclosed approximately 10 years, desert grasslands approximately 11–15 years, and meadow grasslands approximately 5 years. These results indicated that the management strategies of enclosed grasslands should be adjusted reasonably according to the types and the management objectives of grasslands in order to maintain or even improve the condition and services of grassland ecosystems.

Human activities dominant the distribution of Kobresia pygmaea community in alpine meadow grassland in the east source region of Yellow River, China

Kobresia pygmaea is the endemic and one of the most important species in the alpine meadow in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It is the key stage in the management of degraded grassland, and irreversible degradation will take place after the degradation succession phases of the Kobresia pygmaea community. However, knowledge about the spatial distribution and driving factors were still unknown. In this study, the potential distribution of the Kobresia pygmaea community was determined using the BIOMOD niche model. Combine with the reality distribution based on remote sensing classification, the driving factors of climate and human activities were identified. The findings revealed that: (1) among all environmental factors, the maximum radiation, monthly temperature difference, driest period precipitation were the main climate influencing factors for the Kobresia pygmaea community distribution, and random forest model achieved the highest prediction accuracy and best stability of any niche model. (2) The potential distribution area of Kobresia pygmaea community was 653.25 km2 (account for 3.28% of the study area), and mostly located in northern and central of Zeku County, northeast of Henan County, and northeast, central, and eastern parts of Maqu County. (3) Climate factors driven 21.12% of Kobresia pygmaea community reality distribution, while human activities driven for 79.98%. Our results revealed that human activities dominant the reality distribution of Kobresia pygmaea community in alpine meadow grassland in the east source region of Yellow River, China.

Spatiotemporal fusion of multi-source remote sensing data for estimating aboveground biomass of grassland

Accurate estimation of aboveground biomass of grasslands is key to sustainable grassland utilization. However, most satellites cannot provide high temporal and spatial resolution data. Patterns of grassland dynamics associated with variability in climate conditions across spatiotemporal scales are yet to be adequately quantified. A spatiotemporal fusion model offers the opportunity to combine the resolution advantages of different remote sensing data to achieve a high frequency and high precision monitoring of vegetation. We test a flexible spatiotemporal data fusion (FSDAF) methodology to generate synthetic normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data from Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Landsat data sets. The methodology is tested for the semi-arid grassland of the Xilin River Basin, China. Based on NDVI data fusion and field measured aboveground biomass an aboveground biomass estimation model is established for the watershed. Exploring the temporal and spatial changes of biomass and its relationship with environmental factors. The results show that: (1) The FSDAF model performs well (R2 = 0.75) and has clear textural features. (2) The established Support Vector Machine Aboveground Biomass model not only ensured the accuracy of estimation (R2 = 0.78, RMSE = 15.43 g/m2), but also generated spatiotemporal maps of biomass with higher spatial (30 m) and temporal resolution (8 days). (3) The grassland aboveground biomass in this area decreases from southeast to northwest, and the grassland biomass reaches its peak at the end of July. The average biomass of different grasslands decreases in the order of meadow grassland > typical grassland > desert grassland. (4) Aboveground biomass increased linearly with increasing water content, organic carbon and total nitrogen, and was most sensitive to soil water content. During the early growing and rapid growing period, aboveground biomass is mainly affected by both air temperature and precipitation, while the effects of temperature and human activities gradually dominate in the middle and late growing periods. This study helps to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of dynamic monitoring of grassland biomass, and provides a scientific basis for grassland protection and management in arid and semi-arid regions.

Wind Power Increases the Plant Diversity of Temperate Grasslands but Decreases the Dominance of Palatable Plants

As an important clean energy source, the scale and quantity of wind power have steadily increased under the background of global change. The construction and operation of wind power facilities have massive impacts on grassland microclimates. However, the effect of wind power operation on the plant community composition is still unclear. To investigate this issue, we selected wind farms in 6 meadow grasslands and 6 typical steppes in the central region of Inner Mongolia, the province with the largest scale of grassland wind power operations in China. At these sites, we conducted field sample surveys to obtain species information, measure plant biomass, calculate plant diversity, and take soil samples to determine soil nutrients. The results showed that wind power operation significantly reduced the dominance of Poaceae and Cyperaceae plants in both types of grasslands and significantly increased the Shannon diversity of meadow grasslands. The inconsistent responses at each experimental site led to a nonsignificant overall effect of wind power operation on the plant beta diversity. In addition, wind power operation significantly increased plant biomass in meadow grasslands. Wind power operation did not change the soil total carbon, total nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, or nitrate nitrogen. On the basis of the results, we suggest strengthening the long-term monitoring of temperate grassland plant community composition in wind farms, and replanting of community-building species could be done at appropriate times.

Scale effect of climate factors on soil organic carbon stock in natural grasslands of northern China

Changes in grassland soil organic carbon stock (SOCS) may significantly affect the regional climate and carbon cycle of terrestrial ecosystems. However, how the impact of climate factors on SOCS and the dominant climate factors are regulated by the area scale of grasslands remains unclear. To understand the scale effects of climate on SOCS and how to accurately estimate SOCS at different scales, three area scales were defined by extending grassland types on the basis of meadow, typical and desert grasslands (Scale I (average area 37.22 × 104 km2) included each of these three types of grasslands, Scale II (average area 74.45 × 104 km2) was achieved by a pairwise combination of these three types of grasslands. Scale III (area 111.67 × 104 km2) was an aggregate of these three types of grasslands), the relationship between climate factors (i.e., mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature, annual maximum temperature, annual minimum temperature, mean annual ground temperature, mean annual humidity, annual sunshine duration, annual maximum depth of accumulated snow, and the number of snow-covered days) and SOCS at the three scales were explored in the grasslands of northern China. Our results indicated that the total SOCS in grasslands at the three scales was ordered as desert grassland < meadow grassland < typical grassland. Of the nine climate factors, mean annual precipitation, positively correlated with SOCS, was the most significant climatic factor for all three scales. The dominant climatic factors of the SOCS differed across grassland area scales (i.e., MAP and MAH for meadow grassland, AMAT, MAP, NSD, and MAH for typical grassland, MAP, NSD, MAH, AMAT, and ASD for meadow-typical grassland scale, MAP, MAT, and MAGT for typical-desert grassland scale, MAP and MAT for meadow-typical-desert grassland scale). The impact of climate factors on the SOCS decreased as the scale increased. It is essential to screen appropriate climate predictors according to a given area scale when assessing regional SOCS. Multiple climate factors are better predictors for accessing SOCS at a small scale. At a large scale, however, dominant climatic factors are predictors that are more efficient.

Grassland Biomass Inversion Based on a Random Forest Algorithm and Drought Risk Assessment

Xilin Gol is a typical kind of grassland in arid and semi-arid regions. Under climate warming, the droughts faced by various grassland types tend to expand in scope and intensity, and increase in frequency. Therefore, the quantitative analysis of drought risk in different grassland types becomes particularly important. Based on multi-source data, a random forest regression algorithm was used to construct a grassland biomass estimation model, which was then used to analyze the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of grassland biomass. A quantitative assessment of drought risk (DR) in different grassland types was applied based on the theory of risk formation, and a structural equation model (SEM) was used to analyze the drivers of drought risk in different grassland types. The results show that among the eight selected variables that affect grassland biomass, the model had the highest accuracy (R = 0.90) when the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), precipitation (Prcp), soil moisture (SM) and longitude (Lon) were combined as input variables. The grassland biomass showed a spatial distribution that was high in the east and low in the west, gradually decreasing from northeast to southwest. Among the grasslands, desert grassland (DRS) had the highest drought risk (DR = 0.30), while meadow grassland (MEG) had the lowest risk (DR = 0.02). The analysis of the drivers of drought risk in grassland biomass shows that meteorological elements mainly drive typical grasslands (TYG) and other grasslands (OTH). SM greatly impacted MEG, and ET had a relatively high contribution to DRS. This study provides a basis for managing different grassland types in large areas and developing corresponding drought adaptation programs.

Predicted increased P relative to N growth limitation of dry grasslands under soil acidification and alkalinization is ameliorated by increased precipitation

Global change potentially affects soil pH and thereby ecological stoichiometry. However, it remains unclear how changes in soil pH affect the total nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) stoichiometry of soils and vegetations, which are of critical importance in understanding ecosystem nutrient cycling. Based on a two-year study for the effects of soil acid and alkali additions on soil and vegetational N:P stoichiometry at nine sites representing three grassland types (i.e., desert, typical and meadow grasslands with increasing precipitation availability), we found that across all grasslands, soil acidification did not affect soil [N], [P] or their stoichiometry, while soil alkalization reduced soil [N] and thus N:P ratio. In desert and typical grasslands, soil acidification showed no effects on vegetation [N], but reduced vegetation [P], resulting in increased vegetation N:P ratios. In meadow grasslands, soil acidification increased both vegetation [N] and [P], leading to little effect on vegetation N:P ratios. Soil alkalization increased vegetation [N] in desert and typical grasslands while reduced vegetation [P] in desert grasslands. Soil alkalization increased vegetation N:P ratios in desert and typical grasslands. However, vegetation N:P ratios in meadow grasslands were not affected by soil alkalization. Under soil acidification, precipitation was positively correlated with vegetation [P] and negatively correlated with the vegetation N:P ratios. Standardized major axis regression showed that both soil acidification and alkalization induced faster accumulation of vegetation P than N. Pearson correlation and structural equation modeling revealed that soil and vegetation [P] were responsible for spatial differences in vegetation N:P stoichiometry under altered soil pH. These results indicate that precipitation modulates vegetation N:P stoichiometry under and possibly via soil pH changes in temperate grasslands. Dryer grasslands showed greater alterations of vegetation N:P ratios after soil pH changed than wetter grasslands. We thus conclude that unproductive and dry grasslands may be sensitive to altered soil pH. This study reveals that precipitation and soil water were critical to predict grassland geochemical cycle in response to altered soil acidity/alkalinity.

Precipitation-mediated responses of plant biomass production and allocation to changing soil pH in semiarid grasslands

Biomass and its allocation are crucial to understand carbon cycling. Climate change and human disturbance potentially alter soil pH, but it remains unclear how biomass production and its partitioning respond to altered soil pH. Here, we investigated how changing soil pH (acidification and alkalization) affected above- and belowground biomass production and allocation (hereafter AB, BB and BB/AB, respectively) at nine sites representing desert, typical, and meadow grasslands with increasing precipitation across a 1500-km transect in Inner Mongolia, China. The results showed that soil acidification reduced AB in typical and meadow grasslands, whereas soil alkalization reduced AB in desert and typical grasslands. Changing soil pH did not affect BB in desert or typical grasslands, but reduced BB in meadow grasslands. Altered soil pH negatively impacted species richness, Shannon-Wiener diversity, and dominant species biomass across all grasslands. BB/AB was increased by soil acidification and alkalization along the study transect. Soil C, N and C:N ratio were not affected by changing soil pH in three types of grasslands. Response ratios of AB, BB/AB and dominant species biomass were positively correlated with precipitation under altered soil pH, whereas response ratios of BB were negatively correlated with precipitation under soil alkalization. Variance partitioning analysis showed that the response of biomass and its allocation to altered soil pH were mainly explained by community composition but not soil fertility. Structural equation model analysis demonstrated that precipitation mediated the responses of biomass distribution to soil pH changes in semi-arid grasslands mainly via altering the response of dominant species. Our results indicate that dry grasslands with low productivity and precipitation generally allocate more C to belowground than wet grasslands regardless of pH change. These findings can improve our predictions of carbon dynamics in grassland ecosystems under climate change.

Characteristics and driving conditions of flash drought in different grassland ecosystems

At present, flash droughts are poorly understood. Mature prevention and control measures are not available. This study aims to thoroughly explore the evolution characteristics of flash droughts in grassland ecosystems and to determine the meteorological driving conditions for inducing and relieving flash droughts.We propose the concept of the strong evapotranspiration flash drought (SEFD), a new type of flash drought in mid-temperate grasslands. The frequency of SEFDs is lower than that of heat wave flash droughts (HWFDs), but the intensity and impact of SEFDs are greater than those of HWFDs. Flash droughts in grasslands exhibit a high outbreak period from May to August, with the intensity basically above that of moderate drought. HWFDs occur most frequently in June and SEFDs in May. Meadow grasslands are the type of grassland with the highest risk of flash drought. Typical grasslands are more prone to HWFDs, while desert grasslands are more prone to SEFD outbreaks.In this study, a multifactor method was established to quantitatively evaluate the key influencing factors inducing flash droughts of different intensities in different time periods and to quantitatively predict the evolution of flash droughts into seasonal droughts. The temperature, water vapor pressure, precipitation, and wind speed were the key influencing factors of flash droughts and that the most important period in terms of inducing flash droughts is one pentad before the onset of flash drought. The outbreak rate and threshold of key influencing factors are the driving conditions for inducing flash droughts, and the recovery rate can be used as the basis for predicting whether an flash drought will evolve into a seasonal drought.The results showed that the characteristics and driving conditions of flash droughts are different in different types of grasslands and different time periods and are different for different types of flash droughts. In the future, the impact of flash droughts will become more severe.

Atmospheric methane oxidation is affected by grassland type and grazing and negatively correlated to total soil respiration in arid and semiarid grasslands in Inner Mongolia

Methane (CH4) is an important trace greenhouse gas and atmospheric CH4 uptake by high-affinity methanotrophs in grassland soil accounts for an important proportion of the terrestrial CH4 sink. However, our understanding of the comprehensive effects of grassland type and grazing treatment on active soil methanotrophs and atmospheric CH4 uptake is still under debate. This study investigates the impact of grazing on CH4 oxidation rate and active atmospheric CH4 oxidizing methanotroph communities in two arid and semiarid grassland ecosystems (meadow and desert) by detecting transcripts of methane monooxygenase (pmoA) genes. Atmospheric CH4 oxidation rates differed according to grassland type and grazing treatment. The highest activity was found in desert grasslands with moderate grazing and the lowest activity in meadow grasslands with exclosures. The differences in activities were linked with changes in abundance, composition and co-occurrence network patterns of active methanotrophs and CO2 production rate. Redundancy, correlation and random forest analyses indicated that pmoA transcripts, available phosphorus (AP), NO3−-N, and CO2 production rate were the most important factors predicting active methanotroph community composition and atmospheric CH4 oxidation activity in these grassland ecosystems. A glucose amendment incubation experiment showed that addition of glucose increased heterotrophic microbial respiration and inhibited atmospheric CH4 oxidation. This study provides evidence that CO2 production rate is an important factor associated with atmospheric CH4 oxidation activity in arid and semiarid grassland ecosystems and suggests that interactions between methanotrophs and other heterotrophs influence methanotroph activity in grassland ecosystems.

Exploring grassland ecosystem water use efficiency using indicators of precipitation and soil moisture across the Mongolian Plateau

Grassland ecosystem dominates in the Mongolian Plateau, mostly located in its arid and semi-arid regions. Although the ecosystem is an important source for agriculture, it is also a fragile system ecologically. This system is one of the most sensitive areas to global climate change. Precipitation (PPT) and soil moisture (SM) are important water sources in the grassland ecosystem, and their changes would greatly affect vegetation growth. This paper generates the precipitation use efficiency (PUE) and soil water use efficiency (SWUE) of Mongolian Plateau grassland based on multi-source remote sensing data to investigate the spatio-temporal distribution pattern and identify the driving factors. Results showed four main findings. Firstly, two water use efficiency (WUE) indicators show a generally increasing trend from 2000 to 2018, with average PUE and SWUE 1.07 gC·m−2·mm−1 and 1.03 gC/kg·H2O, respectively. They have similar spatial distribution patterns, consistent with the available water resources, decreasing from northeast to southwest. However, grassland vegetation growth is more sensitive to soil moisture than precipitation, and the dynamic change of SWUE is smoother and more significant than PUE. Secondly, due to the higher species richness, better vegetation biological characteristics and less severe growth environment, meadow grassland has the highest PUE and SWUE, followed by typical grassland and desert steppe. Thirdly, PUE and SWUE are relatively low in extremely arid and humid regions. In areas with relatively moderate water conditions (PPT in 148–360 mm, SM in 0.14–0.35 cm3/cm3), two indicators increase with the abundance of moisture conditions and reach the maximum. Fourthly, there is a positive linear relationship between PUE (SWUE) with precipitation and a unimodal correlation between PUE (SWUE) with temperature across the entire grassland. However, a varying correlation exists in different grassland ecosystems, especially meadow grassland. Together with analyzing past and future trends, this study provides strong evidence to reflect the impact of global climate change and the management and protection of the grassland ecosystems in arid and semi-arid regions.

Wątrobowce jako wskaźniki sukcesji odtwarzającej siedliska borealnych świerczyn bagiennych w dolinie Czarnej Hańczy (Wigierski Park Narodowy)

The research problem discussed in the paper concerns the reaction of cryptogams (liverworts) to changes in the habitat and microclimate of the forest interior, which occur in the successive sequence closing the return of the forest to the former grassland (meadow or pasture) in the river valley. The study was conducted on two groups of habitats and groups of species occurring in them, i.e. epigeic and epixylic liverworts. The research results showed that when forests returned to former grassland (meadow or pasture), the soil habitat regenerated faster. The recreation of epixylic flora is a long process.

Mowing Did Not Alleviate the Negative Effect of Nitrogen Addition on the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Community in a Temperate Meadow Grassland.

As nitrogen deposition intensifies under global climate change, understanding the responses of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi to nitrogen deposition and the associated mechanisms are critical for terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, the effects of nitrogen addition and mowing on AM fungal communities in soil and mixed roots were investigated in an Inner Mongolia grassland. The results showed that nitrogen addition reduced the α-diversity of AM fungi in soil rather than that of root. Besides, nitrogen addition altered the composition of AM fungal community in soil. Soil pH and inorganic nitrogen content were the main causes of changes in AM fungal communities affected by nitrogen addition. Mowing and the interaction of nitrogen addition and mowing had no significant effect on AM fungal community diversity. In contrast, while mowing may reduce the negative effects of nitrogen addition on the richness and diversity of plants by alleviating light limitation, it could not do so with the negative effects on AM fungal communities. Furthermore, AM fungal communities clustered phylogenetically in all treatments in both soil and roots, indicating that environmental filtering was the main driving force for AM fungal community assembly. Our results highlight the different responses of AM fungi in the soil and roots of a grassland ecosystem to nitrogen addition and mowing. The study will improve our understanding of the effects of nitrogen deposition on the function of ecosystem.

Diversity‐stability relationships in temperate grasslands as a function of soil pH

AbstractDiversity‐stability relationships in grasslands depend on the environment. Climate change and land degradation potentially alter soil pH and community stability within grassland environments, although it remains unclear how alteration in soil pH affects diversity‐stability relationships. From a three‐year experiment with acidification and alkalization treatments in three types of grasslands (i.e., desert, typical and meadow grasslands) in Northern China, we found that altered soil pH negatively impacted community biodiversity, especially in desert grasslands. Both soil acidification and alkalization reduced community stability in desert grasslands. Soil alkalization reduced community stability in typical grasslands. Altered soil pH did not affect community stability in meadow grasslands. The reduced community stability by soil acidification in desert grasslands could be attributed to the decreased dominant species stability, whereas the soil alkalization‐induced decline of community stability could be attributed to the reducing species asynchrony and dominant species stability. Our results suggest that soil pH‐mediated community stability is mainly driven by dominant species stability rather than diversity in desert grassland. Soil nutrients are affected by soil acidification and alkalization and varied among grasslands. Soil acidification enhanced nutrient availability and soil alkalization reduced soil total nutrients, both of which were negatively correlated with soil pH in desert grassland. Such changes in soil nutrients were associated with species asynchrony and then indirectly affected community stability, indicating the importance of soil nutrients in driving community stability. Our study suggests that drier grasslands might face greater stability risks and challenges than wetter grasslands under altered soil pH across spatial gradients of semiarid grasslands.

China’s meadow grasslands: challenges and opportunities

China’s meadow grasslands: challenges and opportunities

Special Issue: Challenges and opportunities in Chinese meadow grasslands: perspectives in a land-use change context

Special Issue: Challenges and opportunities in Chinese meadow grasslands: perspectives in a land-use change context

Correction to: Synergistic interactions between zinc and nitrogen addition in promoting plant Zn uptake as counteracted by mowing management in a meadow grassland

Correction to: Synergistic interactions between zinc and nitrogen addition in promoting plant Zn uptake as counteracted by mowing management in a meadow grassland