Altitude and plant community jointly regulate soil stoichiometry characteristics of natural grassland in the Baluntai area on the southern slope of the middle Tianshan Mountains， China

doi:10.11686/cyxb2022412

Abstract

Abstract:

Exploring the altitudinal characteristics of soil stoichiometry is important for understanding the stoichiometric distribution of natural grassland soil in high altitude areas and improving soil nutrient conditions. In this research， the soil and plant communities at an altitude of 2200-3550 m in the Baluntai area on the southern slope of the middle Tianshan Mountains were studied. The variation of soil carbon， nitrogen， phosphorus and potassium stoichiometry along an altitude gradient was examined by one-way ANOVA and one-way Kruskal-Wallis tests. Correlation between soil stoichiometry data was explored by Pearson correlation analysis. The correlation between soil stoichiometry and soil physical and chemical properties and plant diversity was tested by redundancy analysis （RDA）. Significance tests were used to determine which factors had significant effects on soil stoichiometry. After removing the collinearity of independent variables， stepwise regression analysis was used to determine the optimal regression equation to determine the stoichiometry of single soils using the akaike information criterion. In this way the factors stoichiometry were found in each case. The results showed that： 1） Soil organic carbon， total nitrogen， available nitrogen content， carbon-phosphorus ratio， carbon-potassium ratio， nitrogen-phosphorus ratio and nitrogen-potassium ratio increased gradually with increase in altitude， while soil total phosphorus， total potassium， available phosphorus， available potassium content， carbon-nitrogen ratio and phosphorus-potassium ratio did not change significantly. 2） There were strong positive correlations between soil organic carbon content and all stoichiometric ratios except phosphorus-potassium ratio and between total nitrogen content and all stoichiometric ratios except carbon-nitrogen ratio， while the correlation between total phosphorus， total potassium content and organic carbon， total nitrogen content and stoichiometric ratio was not significant. 3） Altitude， soil salinity and Margalef richness index of the shrub layer are the main factors affecting soil stoichiometric characteristics. Soil carbon， nitrogen， phosphorus and potassium contents were also higher in areas with lower shrub species richness.

Key words: ecological stoichiometry, altitude, natural grassland, plant community, soil nutrients

Guo-liang YU, Zi-jing MA, Zi-li LYU, Bin LIU. Altitude and plant community jointly regulate soil stoichiometry characteristics of natural grassland in the Baluntai area on the southern slope of the middle Tianshan Mountains， China[J]. Acta Prataculturae Sinica, 2023, 32(9): 68-78.

Figures/Tables 7

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海拔Altitude （m）	SWC （%）	pH	TS （g·kg^-1）	Margalef_s	Margalef_h	SOC （g·kg^-1）
2200	17.87±2.94c	7.79±0.07a	3.90±0.07abc	2.11±0.16a	12.92±2.26a	13.49±2.89c
2350	25.23±9.22abc	7.68±0.14a	5.38±1.31abc	1.00±0.00a	12.89±2.53a	35.92±6.31ab
2500	35.69±6.34a	7.78±0.09a	13.93±2.71a	2.67±0.47a	8.67±2.59a	22.73±6.74bc
2650	16.53±2.33c	7.86±0.14a	11.49±3.08ab	2.44±1.13a	11.00±2.60a	21.07±6.28bc
2800	19.03±3.77bc	7.89±0.11a	12.17±1.74ab	1.56±0.42a	16.33±4.50a	21.99±7.65bc
2950	31.65±0.99a	7.95±0.30a	1.83±0.97c	0	14.42±0.66a	36.05±9.99ab
3100	20.07±2.11bc	7.79±0.16a	1.88±0.32c	0	13.50±2.68a	48.91±7.52a
3250	32.73±3.77a	7.86±0.20a	1.82±0.28c	0	12.17±1.43a	42.19±6.39a
3400	25.53±2.00b	7.76±0.09a	2.69±1.55c	0	13.67±0.47a	61.75±12.33a
3550	41.18±8.60a	7.76±0.05a	2.52±1.55c	0	13.38±3.99a	32.64±6.69ab
海拔Altitude （m）	TN （g·kg^-1）	TP （g·kg^-1）	TK （g·kg^-1）	AN （mg·kg^-1）	AP （mg·kg^-1）	AK （mg·kg^-1）
2200	1.46±0.23c	0.81±0.05ab	13.81±0.16a	47.32±10.97c	6.07±0.77b	127.33±12.65c
2350	3.99±0.93ab	0.97±0.08a	12.99±1.51ab	149.99±35.56a	9.17±0.96a	233.36±25.23ab
2500	2.28±0.76bc	0.78±0.06ab	13.08±1.05ab	79.99±20.09b	2.47±0.41c	268.22±21.91a
2650	2.41±1.07bc	0.64±0.09b	10.78±1.11b	63.71±8.93b	4.85±0.44b	254.94±34.98ab
2800	2.37±0.71bc	0.80±0.13ab	11.91±1.04b	91.09±30.41b	2.94±0.58c	148.66±17.24bc
2950	4.03±1.02ab	0.93±0.00a	12.29±0.43b	178.38±69.67a	5.04±0.27b	188.14±17.25b
3100	3.81±0.28ab	0.83±0.06ab	12.55±0.62ab	194.19±51.82a	2.44±0.55c	190.66±17.41b
3250	4.61±0.33a	0.76±0.03ab	13.08±0.76ab	169.28±27.16a	2.69±0.56c	171.57±26.64bc
3400	5.67±0.67a	0.95±0.08a	12.87±1.03ab	269.57±52.86a	5.28±0.79b	267.25±26.10a
3550	3.01±0.49ab	0.82±0.04ab	13.66±2.56ab	150.10±48.90a	4.25±0.48b	160.70±5.09bc

海拔Altitude （m）	SWC （%）	pH	TS （g·kg^-1）	Margalef_s	Margalef_h	SOC （g·kg^-1）
2200	17.87±2.94c	7.79±0.07a	3.90±0.07abc	2.11±0.16a	12.92±2.26a	13.49±2.89c
2350	25.23±9.22abc	7.68±0.14a	5.38±1.31abc	1.00±0.00a	12.89±2.53a	35.92±6.31ab
2500	35.69±6.34a	7.78±0.09a	13.93±2.71a	2.67±0.47a	8.67±2.59a	22.73±6.74bc
2650	16.53±2.33c	7.86±0.14a	11.49±3.08ab	2.44±1.13a	11.00±2.60a	21.07±6.28bc
2800	19.03±3.77bc	7.89±0.11a	12.17±1.74ab	1.56±0.42a	16.33±4.50a	21.99±7.65bc
2950	31.65±0.99a	7.95±0.30a	1.83±0.97c	0	14.42±0.66a	36.05±9.99ab
3100	20.07±2.11bc	7.79±0.16a	1.88±0.32c	0	13.50±2.68a	48.91±7.52a
3250	32.73±3.77a	7.86±0.20a	1.82±0.28c	0	12.17±1.43a	42.19±6.39a
3400	25.53±2.00b	7.76±0.09a	2.69±1.55c	0	13.67±0.47a	61.75±12.33a
3550	41.18±8.60a	7.76±0.05a	2.52±1.55c	0	13.38±3.99a	32.64±6.69ab
海拔Altitude （m）	TN （g·kg^-1）	TP （g·kg^-1）	TK （g·kg^-1）	AN （mg·kg^-1）	AP （mg·kg^-1）	AK （mg·kg^-1）
2200	1.46±0.23c	0.81±0.05ab	13.81±0.16a	47.32±10.97c	6.07±0.77b	127.33±12.65c
2350	3.99±0.93ab	0.97±0.08a	12.99±1.51ab	149.99±35.56a	9.17±0.96a	233.36±25.23ab
2500	2.28±0.76bc	0.78±0.06ab	13.08±1.05ab	79.99±20.09b	2.47±0.41c	268.22±21.91a
2650	2.41±1.07bc	0.64±0.09b	10.78±1.11b	63.71±8.93b	4.85±0.44b	254.94±34.98ab
2800	2.37±0.71bc	0.80±0.13ab	11.91±1.04b	91.09±30.41b	2.94±0.58c	148.66±17.24bc
2950	4.03±1.02ab	0.93±0.00a	12.29±0.43b	178.38±69.67a	5.04±0.27b	188.14±17.25b
3100	3.81±0.28ab	0.83±0.06ab	12.55±0.62ab	194.19±51.82a	2.44±0.55c	190.66±17.41b
3250	4.61±0.33a	0.76±0.03ab	13.08±0.76ab	169.28±27.16a	2.69±0.56c	171.57±26.64bc
3400	5.67±0.67a	0.95±0.08a	12.87±1.03ab	269.57±52.86a	5.28±0.79b	267.25±26.10a
3550	3.01±0.49ab	0.82±0.04ab	13.66±2.56ab	150.10±48.90a	4.25±0.48b	160.70±5.09bc

影响因子Impact factor	轴Ⅰ得分Axis Ⅰ score	轴Ⅱ得分Axis Ⅱ score	拟合系数R²	P值P value
海拔Altitude	0.85	0.50	0.31	0.00**
土壤含水量SWC	0.27	0.18	0.06	0.75
土壤pH值pH	-0.19	0.19	0.04	0.62
土壤总盐含量TS	-0.80	0.36	0.21	0.04*
灌木层Margalef丰富度指数Margalef_s	-0.90	0.12	0.34	0.00**
草本层Margalef丰富度指数Margalef_h	0.45	-0.38	0.06	0.71

影响因子Impact factor	轴Ⅰ得分Axis Ⅰ score	轴Ⅱ得分Axis Ⅱ score	拟合系数R²	P值P value
海拔Altitude	0.85	0.50	0.31	0.00**
土壤含水量SWC	0.27	0.18	0.06	0.75
土壤pH值pH	-0.19	0.19	0.04	0.62
土壤总盐含量TS	-0.80	0.36	0.21	0.04*
灌木层Margalef丰富度指数Margalef_s	-0.90	0.12	0.34	0.00**
草本层Margalef丰富度指数Margalef_h	0.45	-0.38	0.06	0.71

土壤化学计量 Soil stoichiometry	赤池信息准则 AIC	拟合系数 R²	影响因子 Impact factor	回归系数估计值 Estimated regression coefficient	标准误 Standard error	t值 t value
SOC	162.09	0.37	海拔Altitude*	0.02	0.01	2.55
SOC	162.09	0.37	TS*	-1.03	0.54	-1.92
TN	14.42	0.25	Margalef_s**	-0.64	0.19	-3.32
TP	-141.31	0.37	海拔Altitude*	-0.00	0.00	-2.62
			Margalef_s***	-0.04	0.01	-3.77
			Margalef_h*	0.00	0.00	2.10
TK	25.65	0.16	SWC*	0.07	0.03	2.34
TK	25.65	0.16	TS*	-0.11	0.06	-1.76
AN	254.73	0.43	Margalef_s***	-41.56	9.30	-4.47
AP	39.29	0.25	海拔Altitude**	-0.00	0.00	-3.35
AP	39.29	0.25	TS*	-0.19	0.08	-2.46
AK	246.62	0.11	TS*	3.66	1.92	1.91
C/N	30.18	0.10	海拔Altitude*	0.00	0.00	1.87
C/P	167.92	0.32	海拔Altitude***	0.02	0.01	3.88
C/K	8.86	0.28	海拔Altitude*	0.00	0.00	2.37
N/P	25.36	0.20	海拔Altitude**	0.00	0.00	2.91
N/K	-134.27	0.16	海拔Altitude*	0.00	0.00	2.57
P/K	-277.71	0.12	Margalef_h*	0.00	0.00	2.23