Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Yu, Cheng
• Zhang, Jing
• Pang, Xiao Pan
• Wang, Qian
• Zhou, Yu Pei
• Guo, Zheng Gang

Titel

Soil disturbance and disturbance intensity: Response of soil nutrient concentrations of alpine meadow to plateau pika bioturbation in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China

Ist Teil von

• Geoderma, 2017-12, Vol.307, p.98-106

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

Access via ScienceDirect (Elsevier)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) bioturbation affects the soil nutrient concentrations of the alpine meadow in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) by the arrangement of bare land. This study investigated the effect of the disturbance produced by plateau pika bioturbation on primary soil nutrient concentrations of the Kobresia pygmaea meadow in view of overall and site scale and further analyzed the effect of the disturbance intensity of plateau pika on the soil nutrient concentrations of vegetated land and bare land. Our results showed that the disturbance by plateau pika bioturbation significantly decreased the soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP), and increased the available phosphorus (AP), NO3−-N and NH4+-N of bare land. Moderate disturbance intensities increased the SOC, TN and TP of both vegetated land and bare land and reduced the NO3−-N, NH4+-N and AP of vegetated land while increasing those of bare land. Disturbance within the threshold disturbance intensities of plateau pika is beneficial to the soil C and N, accumulating higher available nutrient concentrations in the topsoil, which would provide good habitats for certain rare plants and supply nutrients for the nitrophilous graminoid plants to grow well in the QTP. These results suggest that the understanding of the responses of the soil nutrient concentrations to plateau pika bioturbation should consider the bare land under disturbance intensities of plateau pika and alpine meadow type. •Disturbance and intensity present more information than only intensity.•Disturbance by plateau pika increased the soil NO3−-N and NH4+-N of bare land.•Different intensity has different influence on soil nutrients.•Bare land under moderate disturbed intensity is beneficial to the alpine meadow.