Ecological Stoichiometric Characteristics of Leaves and Litter of Plants Dominant in Heidaigou Opencast Coal Mining Area
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Supported by the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-XB3-13), the New Century Excellent Talents Program of the Ministry of Education (NCET-2-0479), and the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province (2011JM5011)

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    Abstract:

    【Objective】Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, being elements essential to plant growth, play important roles in the growth and development of plants and functioning of the individuals. Ecological stoichiometry is a discipline integrating the principles of ecology and stoichiometry and studying energy balance and mass balance of multiple chemical elements in living systems, and can be used to analyze constraints and consequences of these mass balances during ecological interactions. 【Method】This paper was to characterize contents and eco-stoichiometric proportions of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in leaves and litter of eight dominant species of plants, i.e. Pinus tabuliformis, Populus L., Robinia pseudoacacia L., Hippophae rhamnoides, Amorpha fruticosa Linn, Stipa bungeana Trin, Medicago sativa Linn, Agropyron cristatum (Linn.) Gaertn, in three different types of vegetation (forest, shrub, and grass) in the revegetated area of the Heidaigou opencast coal mining, Zhungeer, Inner Mongolia by means of field surveying and sampling and in-lab analysis, and further to explore relationships of plant homeostasis of degraded ecosystems with vegetation type and NP limiting rate, in an attempt to provide some proposals for rational combination of plant species in restoring and/or reestablishing vegetation on the Loess Plateau and some evidence for perfecting the theory of eco-stoichiometry. 【Result】Results show that the content of C, N, P and K varied in the range of 418.2 ~ 564.1, 7.19 ~ 33.21, 0.82 ~ 2.37 and 4.98 ~ 32.77 g kg-1, respectively in leaves of the plants, and in the range of 368.9 ~562.3, 3.98 ~22.65, 0.58 ~ 0.97 and 1.18 ~20.98 g kg-1, respectively in litter of the plants. Among the eight species of plants, a decreasing order of non-nitrogen-fixing plant Hippophae rhamnoides > nitrogen-fixing plants > the other non-nitrogen-fixing plants was observed. The leaves were higher than the litter in content of total carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, especially N content in the leaves, which was even slightly higher than the average of the country. But the P content in the leaves was lower than the average of the country. Among the three types of vegetations, a decreasing order of shrubbery > forest plants > grass was found in content of organic carbon in leaves; an order of shrubbery > grass > forest in TN and TP and an order of grass > shrubury > forest in TK. Eco-stoichiometric characteristics of C, N, P and K in leaves and litter varied with species of the plant and the ratio of N:P, P:K, N:K, C:N, C:P and C:K varied in the range of 7.16 ~ 22.45, 0.036 ~ 0.23, 0.70 ~ 4.55, 14.92 ~ 64.44, 218.54 ~ 557.36 and 12.78 ~ 121.14, respectively in leaves and in the range of 6.97 ~ 23.78, 0.076 ~ 0.64, 0.92 ~ 6.71, 16.09 ~ 160.28, 292.89 ~ 1096.02 and 20.24 ~ 795.31, respectively, in litter. In terms of N:P ratio in leaves, the three types of vegetations followed an order of shrubbery (18.86) > grass (15.44) > forest (14.68), indicating that P is the major limiting factor for growth of shrub plants, while N and P the two factors limiting development of forest and grass vegetations. 【Conclusion】It could, therefore, be concluded that for revegetation of the area, shrubs are the priority choice. All the findings in the study may provide theoretical and practical guidance for restoration and re-establishment of vegetation in the Zhungeer Heidaigou opencast coal mining area.

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MA Rentian, FANG Ying, AN Shaoshan, ZHAO Junfeng, XIAO Li. Ecological Stoichiometric Characteristics of Leaves and Litter of Plants Dominant in Heidaigou Opencast Coal Mining Area[J]. Acta Pedologica Sinica,2016,53(4):1003-1014.

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History
  • Received:October 16,2015
  • Revised:April 07,2016
  • Adopted:April 08,2016
  • Online: May 03,2016
  • Published: