Jin Tao¹, Jiatai Tian¹, Dongmei Li¹, Jinlei Zhu², Qun Ma³, Zhiming Zhang¹, Jungang Chen⁴, Yipeng Liu⁵, Jianqiang Qian^1,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.6, pp. 1129-1141, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.051405 - 27 June 2024

Abstract Human activities and industrialization have significantly increased soil nutrients, such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), profoundly impacting the composition and structure of plant community, as well as the ecosystem functions, especially in nutrient-limited ecosystems. However, as the key propagule pool of perennial grasslands, how belowground bud bank and its relationship with aboveground vegetation respond to short-term changes in soil nutrients was still unclear. In this study, we conducted a short-term (2021–2022) soil fertilization experiment with N addition (10 g N m yr) and P addition (5 g N m yr) in the meadow steppe… More >

Muhammad Junaid Nazir^1,2, Xiuwei Zhang^1,*, Daolin Du², Feihai Yu¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.91, No.9, pp. 2087-2097, 2022, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.021412 - 13 May 2022

Abstract The decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a critical role in regulating atmospheric CO₂ concentrations and climate dynamics. However, the mechanisms and factors controlling SOC decomposition are still not fully understood. Here, we conducted a 60 days incubation experiment to test the effects of physical disturbance and nitrogen (N) addition on SOC decomposition. N addition increased the concentration of NO₃^- by 51% in the soil, but had little effect on the concentration of NH₄⁺. N addition inhibited SOC decomposition, but such an effect differed between disturbed and undisturbed soils. In disturbed and undisturbed soils, application of… More >

Wang XG¹, Wuyunna^1*, CA Busso², YT Song¹, FJ Zhang¹, GW Huo¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.87, pp. 123-132, 2018, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2018.87.123

Abstract Chemical elements, such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), are major limiting nutrients in arid and semiarid grasslands and their stoichiometry (C:N:P) is a very important ratio to determine. In addition, it is critical to understand how plant stoichiometry responds to multiple environmental factors at the species level. In this study, we conducted a greenhouse experiment to investigate the effects of salt stress (4 g NaCl/kg soil), drought (35% of the soil water holding capacity) and N addition (10 g N/m²), as well as their interactions, on C, N and P concentrations and C:N:P… More >

Li^1,2 YY, X-T Lü¹, Z-W Wang¹, C Zhou^3,4, X-G Han¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.83, pp. 283-289, 2014, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2014.83.283

Abstract Relative growth rate (RGR) of plants is a key component of fitness. Theoretically, the RGR of plants would be closely related with biomass allocation. Our mechanistic understanding of the relationship between RGR and biomass allocation under global change scenarios is still limited. We examined the responses of RGR and biomass allocation of Leymus chinensis, a dominant grass in the temperate steppe of northern China, to a wide range of N addition. We found that N addition increased RGR of L. chinensis up to a threshold of 10 g N/m². While leaf and stem weight ratios were positively correlated… More >