Open Access

ARTICLE

Patterns of Leymus chinensis in response to grazing exclusion across two steppe habitats in Inner Mongolia: implications for phenotypic plasticity

Shi G¹, ZY Liu¹, T Baoyin¹, J Sun², JJ Duan³, XL Li³, GF Yang⁴

1 Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology, College of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China.
2 College of School of Animal Science and Technology, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China.
3 Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology and Restoration of Ministry of Agriculture, National Forage Improvement Center, Institute of Grassland Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hohhot 010010, China.
4 Grassland Agri-husbandry Research Center, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China.

Address correspondence to GF Yang, e-mail:

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2018, 87(all), 236-241. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2018.87.236

Abstract

Plant functional traits and their effects on rangeland ecosystem function have received much attention by ecologists. However, the importance of functional traits and the interactive effects of grazing exclusion and climate are poorly understood. This study, therefore, aimed to analyse the response of Leymus chinensis functional traits in long-term grazing exclusion in different habitats (rainless typical steppe and rainy meadow steppe). This study showed that although the sensitivity and variability of different traits were similar in two steppe habitats, phenotypic plasticity of L. chinensis in meadow steppe was significantly higher than typical steppes. With the increased degree of plasticity, the variability significantly increased and could be fitted by an equation of exponential rise to maximum, and this relationship was unaltered by climate. Additionally, we illustrated that different climate conditions do not alter the patterns of phenotypic plasticity of L. chinensis affected by grazing exclusion.

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Keywords

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