Diet characteristics of wild sheep (Ovis ammon darwini) in the Mengluoke Mountains, Xinjiang, China
LI Bang; XU Wenxuan; David A BLANK; WANG Muyang; YANG Weikang
| In most arid and semi-arid regions of the world, domestic livestock and native wildlife share pastures, and their competition for forage and habitat is thought to be a serious conservation issue. Moreover, unmanaged grazing by livestock can cause the population decline in wild ungulates. The diet of an animal species is a determining aspect of its ecological niche, and investigating its diet has been one of the initial steps in basic ecology study of a new species. To get an approximate understanding of the interspecific food relationships of argali (Ovis ammon darwini) between sexes, and sympatric domestic sheep and goats, we compared the diet compositions and diet-overlaps among these herbivores, i.e., male argali, female argali, domestic sheep, and domestic goats in the Mengluoke Mountains of Xinjiang, China by using micro-histological fecal analysis. Female argali, male argali, domestic sheep and domestic goat primarily consumed forbs (43.31%±4.86%), grass (36.02%±9.32%), forbs (41.01%±9.18%), and forbs (36.22%±10.61%), respectively in warm season. All these animals consumed mostly shrubs (female argali: 36.47%±7.56%; male argali: 47.28%±10.75%; domestic sheep: 40.46%±9.56%; and domestic goats: 42.88%±9.34%, respectively) in cold season. The diet-overlaps were relatively high among all species in cold season with values ranging from 0.88 to 0.94. Furthermore, Schoener’s index measured between each possible pair of 4 herbivores increased from the warm season to the cold season. The results illustrate that the high degree of diet-overlap of argali and domestic livestock (sheep and goat) may pose a threat to the survival of the argali in cold season. From the viewpoint of rangeland management and conservation of the endangered argali, the numbers of domestic sheep and goats should be limited in cold season to reduce food competition. |
提交时间： 2018-04-24 来自合作期刊:《Journal of Arid Land》 点击量398， 下载量89， 评论 0
| Conversion of forest land to farmland in the Hyrcanian forest of northern Iran increases the nutrient input, especially the phosphorus (P) nutrient, thus impacting the water quality. Modeling the effect of forest loss on surface water quality provides valuable information for forest management. This study predicts the future impacts of forest loss between 2010 and 2040 on P loading in the Tajan River watershed at the sub-watershed level. To understand drivers of the land cover, we used Land Change Modeler (LCM) combining with the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to simulate the impacts of land use change on P loading. We characterized priority management areas for locating comprehensive and cost-effective management practices at the sub-watershed level. Results show that agricultural expansion has led to an intense deforestation. During the future period 2010–2040, forest area is expected to decrease by 34,739 hm2. And the areas of pasture and agriculture are expected to increase by 7668 and 27,071 hm2, respectively. In most sub-watersheds, P pollution will be intensified with the increase in deforestation by the year 2040. And the P concentration is expected to increase from 0.08 to 2.30 mg/L in all of sub-watersheds by the year 2040. It should be noted that the phosphorous concentration exceeds the American Public Health Association′s water quality standard of 0.2 mg/L for P in drinking water in both current and future scenarios in the Tajan River watershed. Only 30% of sub-watersheds will comply with the water quality standards by the year 2040. The finding of the present study highlights the importance of conserving forest area to maintain a stable water quality. |
提交时间： 2018-04-24 来自合作期刊:《Journal of Arid Land》 点击量210， 下载量87， 评论 0
| Drought is a common abiotic stress that considerably limits crop production. The objective of this study is to explore the influence of water deficiency on the yield, physiologic and metabolomic attributes in upland cotton cultivars (Gossypium hirsutum L). Cotton cultivars, 'Ishonch' and 'Tashkent-6' were selected to study the relationships among their physiologic, metabolomic and yield attributes during water deficiency. Deficit irrigation was designed by modifying the traditional watering protocol to reduce water use. Results indicate that cotton cultivars respond differently to water deficit stress. Water deficit significantly influenced plant height, the number of internodes, and sympodial branches in both cultivars. However, yield components such as the number of bolls, boll seed, lint mass, and individual plant yield were significantly reduced only in 'Tashkent-6'. The leaf area decreased and the specific leaf weight increased in 'Ishonch' under deficit irrigation conditions. However, 'Tashkent-6' demonstrated significant water loss compared to 'Ishonch', and both cultivars showed reduced transpiration rates. Untargeted metabolite profiles of leaves showed clear separation in 'Ishonch', but not in 'Tashkent-6' under deficit irrigation compared to full irrigation. The individual metabolites such as proline and galactinol showed strong association with yield under water deficit stress. Moreover, this study indicates that leaf area and transpiration intensity influence yield during water deficiency. In summary, the correlation among morpho-physiologic, metabolic, and yield components significantly varied between the two cultivars under water deficiency. The flowering stage was sensitive to water stress for both cultivars. The direct relationship between physiology, metabolism, and yield may be a useful selection criterion for determining candidate parents for cotton drought tolerance breeding. |
提交时间： 2018-04-24 来自合作期刊:《Journal of Arid Land》 点击量180， 下载量78， 评论 0
Growth and sustainability of Suaeda salsa in the Lop Nur, China
LI, Congjuan; LIU, Ran; WANG, Shijie; SUN, Yongqiang; LI, Shengyu; ZHANG, Heng; GAO, Jie; DANG, Yanxi; ZHANG, Lili
| Extremely saline soils are very harsh environments for the growth and survival of most plant species, however, halophytes can grow well. The underlying mechanism of halophyte to resist high saline is not well understood by us. This study was conducted at the potash mine near the Lop Nur, China, where the effects of the halophyte Suaeda salsa L. on the saline-alkaline soils and its growth and sustainability were investigated. Four plots (in which the salt encrustation layers were removed), with different soil treatments were evaluated: (1) undisturbed soil, with no additional treatment (T1); (2) the slag soil zone, in which a 40-cm layer of slag was placed on the undisturbed soil surface (T2); (3) slag+sandy soil, in which a 20-cm layer of slag was placed in the lower layer and 20 cm of sandy soil, taken from an area about 70 km away from Lop Nur potash mine, where Tamarix species were growing, was placed in the upper layer (T3); and (4) a 40-cm sandy soil layer taken from the area where Tamarix species were growing was placed on undisturbed soil (T4). Soil nutrient contents increased in the four treatments, but salt content only decreased in the T1 treatment. Salt content in the T4 treatment increased over the two-year period, which may be partly attributed to salt deposition from wind-blown dust within the mine and salt accumulation within the surface soil (0–20 cm) in response to high evaporative demands. The S. salsa plants exhibited greater improvements in growth under the T4 treatment than under the T1, T2, and T3 treatments, which demonstrated that low levels of salinity are beneficial for the growth of this species. The T1 treatment was sustainable because of its low cost and superior soil improvement characteristics. Therefore, S. salsa plants not only reduced soil salinity and increased soil nutrient levels, but also ameliorated the plant growth environment, which would be beneficial for both the ecological restoration of the Lop Nur area and similar areas throughout the world. |
提交时间： 2018-04-24 来自合作期刊:《Journal of Arid Land》 点击量212， 下载量76， 评论 0
| Grazing exclusion is one of the most efficient approaches to restore degraded grassland but may negatively affects the recovery of species diversity. Changes in plant species diversity should be a consequence of the ecological assembly process. Local community assembly is influenced by environmental filtering, biotic interactions, and dispersal. However, how these factors potentially contribute to changes to species diversity is poorly understood, especially in harsh environments. In this study, two management sites within a Stipa breviflora desert steppe community (typical natural steppe) were selected in northern China. In one of the two management sites, grazing has been excluded since 2010 and in the other with open grazing by sheep. In August 2016, three plots were established and 100 sampling units were created within each plot in a 5 m×5 m area at the two management sites. To assess the effects of grazing exclusion on S. breviflora steppe, we analyzed the vegetation biomass, species diversity, soil organic carbon, and soil particle size distribution using paired T-tests. In addition, variation partitioning was applied to determine the relative importance of environmental filtering and dispersal limitation. Null mode analysis was used to quantify the influence of biotic interactions in conjunction with EcoSim niche overlap and co-occurrence values. Our results demonstrated that (1) species diversity significantly decreased and the main improvements in soil quality occurred in the topsoil 0–10 cm after the grazing exclusion; (2) environmental filtering was important for community assembly between grazed and fenced grassland and this appears particularly true for soil particle size distribution, which may be well correlated with soil hydrological processes; and (3) however, competitive exclusion may play a significant role within the exclusion. The multiple pathways of assembly may collectively determine negative effects on the restoration of species diversity. Therefore, designers should be aware of the risk of reducing grazing exclusion-induced species diversity and account for manipulating processes. This in turn will reduce dominant species and promote environmental heterogeneity to maximize species diversity in semi-arid regions. |
提交时间： 2018-04-24 来自合作期刊:《Journal of Arid Land》 点击量157， 下载量65， 评论 0
| Precipitation, a natural feature of weather systems in the Earth, is vitally important for the environment of any region. Under global climate change condition, the characteristics of precipitation have changed as a consequence of enhanced global hydrological cycle. The source region of the Yellow River (SRYR), locating within the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is sensitive to the global climate change due to its complex orography and fragile ecosystem. To understand the precipitation characteristics and its impacts on the environment in the region, we studied the characteristics of rainy days and precipitation amount of different precipitation classes, such as light (0–5 and 5–10 mm), moderate (10–15, 15–20 and 20–25 mm) and heavy (≥25 mm) rains by analyzing the precipitation data of typical meteorological stations in the SRYR during the period 1961–2014, as well as the trends of persistent rainfall events and drought events. Results showed that annual average precipitation in this area had a non-significant (P>0.05) increasing trend, and 82.5% of the precipitation occurred from May to September. Rainy days of the 0–5 mm precipitation class significantly decreased, whereas the rainy days of 5–10, 10–15, and 20–25 mm precipitation classes increased and that of ≥25 mm precipitation class decreased insignificantly. The persistent rainfall events of 1- or 2-day and more than 2-day showed an increasing trend, with the 1- or 2-day events being more frequent. Meanwhile, the number of short drought periods (≤10 days) increased while long drought periods (>10 days) decreased. Since the 0–5 mm precipitation class had a huge impact on the grasslands productivity; the 5–10, 10–15, and 20–25 mm precipitation classes had positive effects on vegetation which rely on the deep soil water through moving nutrients and water into the root zone of these vegetation or through the plant-microbe interactions; the ≥25 mm precipitation class contributed to the floods; and more persistent rainfall events and fewer long drought events inferred positive effects on agriculture. Thus, these results indicate grassland degradation, less risk of floods, and the upgrading impact of climate change on agriculture. This study may provide scientific knowledge for policymakers to sustain the eco-environmental resources in the SYSR. |
提交时间： 2018-04-24 来自合作期刊:《Journal of Arid Land》 点击量174， 下载量72， 评论 0
grassland degradation; semi-arid grassland; greenhouse gases; CO2; CH4; N2O; Inner Mongolia
JIN Dongyan; Phil J MURRAY; XIN Xiaoping; QIN Yifei; CHEN Baorui; QING Gele; ZHANG Zhao; YAN Ruirui
| The variation in soil organic carbon density (SOCD) has been widely documented at various spatial and temporal scales. However, an accurate method for examining the attribution of explanatory factors for change in SOCD is still lacking. This study aims to attribute and quantify the key climatic factors, anthropogenic activities, and soil properties associated with SOCD change in the native grasslands of Inner Mongolia, China, by comparing data between the 1960s and the 2010s. In 2007 and 2011, we resampled 142 soil profiles which were originally sampled during 1963–1964 in the native grasslands of Inner Mongolia. SOCD was determined in A horizon (eluvial horizon) of the soil. We selected the explanatory factors based on a random forest method, and explored the relationships between SOCD change and each of the explanatory factors using a linear mixed model. Our results indicated that the change in SOCD varied from the east to the west of Inner Mongolia, and SOCD was 18% lower in the 2010s than in the 1960s. The lower SOCD in the 2010s may primarily be attributed to the increasing in mean annual water surface evaporation, which explained approximately 10% and 50% of the total variation and explainable variation in the change in SOCD, respectively. The sand content of the soil is also a significant explanatory factor for the decrease in SOCD, which explained about 4% and 21% of the total variation and explainable variation in the change in SOCD, respectively. Furthermore, the collection of quantitative information on grazing frequency and duration may also help to improve our understanding of the anthropogenic factors that govern the change in SOCD. |
提交时间： 2018-04-24 来自合作期刊:《Journal of Arid Land》 点击量174， 下载量77， 评论 0
CO2, CH4 and N2O flux changes in degraded grassland soil of Inner Mongolia, China
BAI, Yunxiao; LI, Xiaobing; WEN, Wanyu; MI, Xue; LI, Ruihua; HUANG, Qi; ZHANG, Meng
| The main purpose of this study was to explore the dynamic changes of greenhouse gas (GHG) from grasslands under different degradation levels during the growing seasons of Inner Mongolia, China. Grassland degradation is associated with the dynamics of GHG fluxes, e.g., CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes. As one of the global ecological environmental problems, grassland degradation has changed the vegetation productivity as well as the accumulation and decomposition rates of soil organic matter and thus will influence the carbon and nitrogen cycles of ecosystems, which will affect the GHG fluxes between grassland ecosystems and the atmosphere. Therefore, it is necessary to explore how the exchanges of CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes between soil and atmosphere are influenced by the grassland degradation. We measured the fluxes of CO2, CH4 and N2O in lightly degraded, moderately degraded and severely degraded grasslands in Inner Mongolia of China during the growing seasons from July to September in 2013 and 2014. The typical semi-arid grassland of Inner Mongolia plays a role as the source of atmospheric CO2 and N2O and the sink for CH4. Compared with CO2 fluxes, N2O and CH4 fluxes were relatively low. The exchange of CO2, N2O and CH4 fluxes between the grassland soil and the atmosphere may exclusively depend on the net exchange rate of CO2 in semi-arid grasslands. The greenhouse gases showed a clear seasonal pattern, with the CO2 fluxes of –33.63–386.36 mg/(m•h), CH4 uptake fluxes of 0.113–0.023 mg/(m•h) and N2O fluxes of –1.68–19.90 µg/(m•h). Grassland degradation significantly influenced CH4 uptake but had no significant influence on CO2 and N2O emissions. Soil moisture and temperature were positively correlated with CO2 emissions but had no significant effect on N2O fluxes. Soil moisture may be the primary driving factor for CH4 uptake. The research results can be in help to better understand the impact of grassland degradation on the ecological environment. |
提交时间： 2018-04-24 来自合作期刊:《Journal of Arid Land》 点击量181， 下载量81， 评论 0
| Knowledge about the effects of vegetation types on soil properties and on water dynamics in the soil profile is critical for revegetation strategies in water-scarce regions, especially the choice of vegetation type and human management measures. We focused on the analysis of the effects of vegetation type on soil hydrological properties and soil moisture variation in the 0–400 cm soil layer based on a long-term (2004―2016) experimental data in the northern Loess Plateau region, China. Soil bulk density (BD), saturated soil hydraulic conductivity (Ks), field capacity (FC) and soil organic carbon (SOC) in 2016, as well as the volumetric soil moisture content during 2004–2016, were measured in four vegetation types, i.e., shrubland (korshinsk peashrub), artificial grassland (alfalfa), fallow land and cropland (millet or potato). Compared with cropland, revegetation with peashrub and alfalfa significantly decreased BD and increased Ks, FC, and SOC in the 0–40 cm soil layer, and fallow land significantly increased FC and SOC in the 0–10 cm soil layer. Soil water storage (SWS) significantly declined in shrubland and grassland in the 40–400 cm soil layer, causing severe soil drought in the deep soil layers. The study suggested that converting cropland to grassland (alfalfa) and shrubland (peashrub) improved soil-hydrological properties, but worsened water conditions in the deep soil profile. However, natural restoration did not intensify deep-soil drying. The results imply that natural restoration could be better than revegetation with peashrub and alfalfa in terms of good soil hydrological processes in the semi-arid Loess Plateau region. |
提交时间： 2018-04-24 来自合作期刊:《Journal of Arid Land》 点击量198， 下载量89， 评论 0
| The rapid desertification of grasslands in Inner Mongolia of China poses a significant ecological threaten to northern China. The combined effects of anthropogenic disturbances (e.g., overgrazing) and biophysical processes (e.g., soil erosion) have led to vegetation degradation and the consequent acceleration of regional desertification. Thus, mitigating the accelerated wind erosion, a cause and effect of grassland desertification, is critical for the sustainable management of grasslands. Here, a combination of mobile wind tunnel experiments and wind erosion model was used to explore the effects of different levels of vegetation coverage, soil moisture and wind speed on wind erosion at different positions of a slope inside an enclosed desert steppe in the Xilamuren grassland of Inner Mongolia. The results indicated a significant spatial difference in wind erosion intensities depending on the vegetation coverage, with a strong decreasing trend from the top to the base of the slope. Increasing vegetation coverage resulted in a rapid decrease in wind erosion as explained by a power function correlation. Vegetation coverage was found to be a dominant control on wind erosion by increasing the surface roughness and by lowering the threshold wind velocity for erosion. The critical vegetation coverage required for effectively controlling wind erosion was found to be higher than 60%. Further, the wind erosion rates were negatively correlated with surface soil moisture and the mass flux in aeolian sand transport increased with increasing wind speed. We developed a mathematical model of wind erosion based on the results of an orthogonal array design. The results from the model simulation indicated that the standardized regression coefficients of the main effects of the three factors (vegetation coverage, soil moisture and wind speed) on the mass flux in aeolian sand transport were in the following order: wind speed>vegetation coverage>soil moisture. These three factors had different levels of interactive effects on the mass flux in aeolian sand transport. Our results will improve the understanding of the interactive effects of wind speed, vegetation coverage and soil moisture in controlling wind erosion in desert steppes, and will be helpful for the design of desertification control programs in future. |
提交时间： 2018-04-24 来自合作期刊:《Journal of Arid Land》 点击量106， 下载量56， 评论 0