Impact of precipitation patterns on biomass and species richness of annuals in a dry steppe.

ABSTRACT: Annuals are an important component part of plant communities in arid and semiarid grassland ecosystems. Although it is well known that precipitation has a significant impact on productivity and species richness of community or perennials, nevertheless, due to lack of measurements, especially long-term experiment data, there is little information on how quantity and patterns of precipitation affect similar attributes of annuals. This study addresses this knowledge gap by analyzing how quantity and temporal patterns of precipitation affect aboveground biomass, interannual variation aboveground biomass, relative aboveground biomass, and species richness of annuals using a 29-year dataset from a dry steppe site at the Inner Mongolia Grassland Ecosystem Research Station. Results showed that abo

SUBMITTER: Yan H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4407894 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature