Mengxu Su¹, Zhanjiang Han^1,*, Zhen Zhao², Xiaofeng Wu¹, Jiaju Wu¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.7, pp. 1689-1703, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.052814

Abstract Leaves are important ‘source’ organs that synthesize organic matter, providing carbon sources for plant growth. Here, we used Populus talassica × Populus euphratica, the dominant species in ecological and timber forests, to simulate carbon limitation through artificial 25%, 50%, and 75% defoliation treatments and explore the effects on root, stem, and leaf morphology, biomass accumulation, and carbon allocation strategies. At the 60th d after treatment, under 25% defoliation treatment, the plant height, specific leaf weight, root surface area and volume, and concentrations of non-structural carbohydrates in stem and root were significantly increased by 9.13%, 20.00%, 16.60%,… More >

Hu FL^1,2, B Liu^1,3, ZM Liu^1,3, YT Fang^1,3, CA Busso⁴

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.84, No.1, pp. 209-221, 2015, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2015.84.209

Abstract Grasslands are one of the most widespread landscapes worldwide, covering approximately one-fifth of the world’s land surface, where grazing is a common practice. How carbon storage responds to grazing in steppes remains poorly understood. We quantified the effects of grazing on community composition and species diversity, and carbon storage in two typical grasslands of northeastern China, one in Horqin and the other one in Hulunbeier. In both grasslands, grazing did not influence plant species diversity. However, it substantially decreased aboveground carbon by 31% and 54% in Horqin and Hulunbeier, respectively. Fenced and grazing treatments showed More >