Effects of Rainfall Manipulation on Ecosystem Respiration and Soil Respiration in an Alpine Steppe in Northern Tibet Plateau

Responses of Soil CO2 Fluxes to Short-Term Experimental Warming in Alpine Steppe Ecosystem, Northern Tibet

Soil carbon dioxide (CO2) emission is one of the largest fluxes in the global carbon cycle. Therefore small changes in the size of this flux can have a large effect on atmospheric CO2 concentrations and potentially constitute a powerful positive feedback to the climate system. Soil CO2 fluxes in the alpine steppe ecosystem of Northern Tibet and their responses to short-term experimental warming...

Response of Soil Respiration to Grazing in an Alpine Meadow at Three Elevations in Tibet

Alpine meadows are one major type of pastureland on the Tibetan Plateau. However, few studies have evaluated the response of soil respiration (R(s)) to grazing along an elevation gradient in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. Here three fenced enclosures were established in an alpine meadow at three elevations (i.e., 4313 m, 4513 m, and 4693 m) in July 2008. We measured R s inside and out...

Contrasting effects of nitrogen and phosphorus addition on soil respiration in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

High soil organic carbon content, extensive root biomass, and low nutrient availability make alpine grasslands an important ecosystem for assessing the influence of nutrient enrichment on soil respiration (SR). We conducted a four-year (2009-2012) field experiment in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to examine the individual and combined effects of nitrogen (N, 100 kg ha-1year...

Corrigendum: Contrasting effects of nitrogen and phosphorus addition on soil respiration in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Effects of Grazing Regimes on Plant Traits and Soil Nutrients in an Alpine Steppe, Northern Tibetan Plateau

Understanding the impact of grazing intensity on grassland production and soil fertility is of fundamental importance for grassland conservation and management. We thus compared three types of alpine steppe management by studying vegetation traits and soil properties in response to three levels of grazing pressure: permanent grazing (M1), seasonal grazing (M2), and grazing exclusion (M3) in the...