Initial response of light use efficiency to experimental warming in an alpine meadow in the Northern Tibetan Plateau

doi:10.11686/cyxb2015150

Abstract

Abstract: Light use efficiency (LUE) is an important eco-physiological variable and the quantification of LUE at a variety of spatial and temporal scales would be advantageous for global carbon cycle and climatic change research. In order to assess the initial response of LUE to climatic warming, a field experiment was conducted in an alpine meadow in Northern Tibet beginning late June, 2013. Open-top chambers (OTC) with two different warming magnitudes (top diameter 0.60 and 1.00 m, labeled as OTC2 and OTC1, respectively) were used to increase temperatures. Daily LUE was estimated by using daily minimum air temperature and daytime mean vapor pressure deficit, based on a Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) algorithm, between July and September in 2013. Compared to the control, OTC2 and OTC1 significantly increased average vapor pressure deficit by 0.60 and 0.20 kPa, respectively. Compared to the control, OTC2 significantly increased average daily minimum air temperature by 0.66℃, whereas OTC1 did not produce a significant increase (0.25℃). OTC2 and OTC1 significantly reduced LUE by 12.9% (i.e. 0.06 g C/MJ) and 3.1% (i.e. 0.01 g C/MJ), respectively. Our findings suggested that climatic warming will probably decrease LUE in alpine meadow ecosystems and that the negative effect of experimental warming on LUE may increase with the magnitude of warming on the Northern Tibetan Plateau.

ZHOU Nan, FU Gang, SUN Wei, LI Shao-Wei, SHEN Zhen-Xi, HE Yong-Tao, ZHANG Xian-Zhou, WANG Jiang-Wei. Initial response of light use efficiency to experimental warming in an alpine meadow in the Northern Tibetan Plateau[J]. Acta Prataculturae Sinica, 2016, 25(2): 251-257.

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