Dataset Information

Flower evolution of alpine forbs in the open top chambers (OTCs) from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

ABSTRACT: Effects of global changes on biodiversity have been paid more and more attention world widely, and the open top chambers (OTCs) are the most common tools to study the effects of climatic warming on plant diversity. However, it remains unclear how flowers evolve under environmental changes, which could help us to understand the changes of plant diversity in the OTCs. We compared the insect diversity and pollen:ovule (P/O) ratio of eight outcrossing species with different life histories inside and outside the OTCs on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, to examine the effects induced by OTCs on the evolution of floral traits. In the OTCs, P/O ratio decreased in annuals, but increased in perennials, indicating an overall trend toward selfing in annuals. We found that the insect diversity differed significantly inside and outside the OTCS, with decreases of dipteran insects and bees. We concluded that changes of P/O ratio in the studied plant species might result from pollination failure, which might be the results of mismatch between flowering time and pollinator activities. We also suggested annuals might be in a more extinction risk than perennials in OTCs, if strong inbreeding depression occurs in these annual outcrossing plants.

SUBMITTER: Zhang C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4441194 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Flower evolution of alpine forbs in the open top chambers (OTCs) from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Zhang Chan C Wang Lin-Lin LL Yang Yong-Ping YP Duan Yuan-Wen YW

Scientific reports 20150522

Effects of global changes on biodiversity have been paid more and more attention world widely, and the open top chambers (OTCs) are the most common tools to study the effects of climatic warming on plant diversity. However, it remains unclear how flowers evolve under environmental changes, which could help us to understand the changes of plant diversity in the OTCs. We compared the insect diversity and pollen:ovule (P/O) ratio of eight outcrossing species with different life histories inside and ...[more]

PMID: 25998558

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Project description:A bibliometric analysis of current research, hotspots, and development trends was used to develop an overall framework of mechanisms of alpine grassland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This investigation includes data from 1,330 articles on alpine grassland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, acquired from the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD) and Web of Science Core Collection (WOS). Research was divided into three themes: spatial scope and management of typical grassland degradation problems, dynamic mechanisms of grassland degradation and effects of ecological engineering, and grassland degradation risk based on remote sensing technology. The results of the analysis showed that the research can be summarized into three aspects: typical grassland degradation identification, dynamic mechanism analysis of grassland degradation, and grassland ecosystem stability strategy. The main findings can summarized, as follows: (1) Ecological analyses using the river source as a typical region defined the formation of "black soil beach" type degraded grasslands in the region, and promoted the ecological environment management and protection of the alpine grassland by discussing the causes of regional ecological environment changes; (2) Dynamic mechanism analyses of climate change and characteristics analyses of grassland vegetation-soil degradation revealed that alpine grassland degradation is the result of multiple main factors; and (3) Risk prediction methods for grassland degradation, methods of grassland management and sustainable countermeasures for agriculture and animal husbandry development, and the development of a comprehensive index of influencing factors on grassland degradation all indicate that selecting the right grassland restoration measures is the key to grassland restoration. Remote sensing monitoring and high-throughput sequencing technology should be used in future research on grassland ecosystems. In addition, multiscale, multidimensional, and multidisciplinary systematic research methods and long-term series data mining could help identify the characteristics and causes of alpine grassland system degradation. These findings can help identify a more effective coordination of landscape, water, lake, field, forest, grass, and sand management for the prevention of alpine grassland degradation.

Project description:The rumen microbiota of ruminants plays a vital role in fiber digestion, and environmental factors affect its community structure. The yak (Bos grunniens) is the main livestock species that inhabits the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) at regions located at high-altitude of 3,000-5,000 m. This work investigated the rumen bacterial community of yak that grazed on the QTP during the whole year to evaluate the relationship between the rumen bacterial community and the nutrient composition of forage plant at three stages. In this study, the diversity of the rumen prokaryotic community composition was monitored in 10 full-grazing yak in an alpine meadow of the QTP. The nutrient composition of three forage growth stages was determined: re-green stage (REGY), grassy stage (GY), and withered stage (WGY). High-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA gene was used. The results showed that the nutritive composition of the alpine meadow changed with the seasons: crude protein (CP) (13.22%) was high in forage during REGY (spring), while neutral detergent fiber (NDF) (59.00%) was high during WGY (winter). Microbial diversity and richness were highest during REGY and the average number of operational taxonomic units from 30 samples was 4,470. The microbial composition was dominated by members of Bacteroidetes (51.82%), followed by Firmicutes (34.08%), and the relative microbial abundance changed in the three forage growth stages. Unweighted UniFrac distance PcoA showed that the bacterial community structure differed between REGY, GY, and WGY. Furthermore, taxonomic groups did not present differences regarding gender in these three stages. The rumen microbiota was enriched with functional potentials that were related to ABC transporters, the two-component system, Aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, and metabolism of Purine, Pyrimidine, Starch and sucrose metabolism. Significant differences were found in the composition, diversity, and function of yak ruminal microorganisms during different forage growth stages. This indicates that microbial changes in the rumen depend on changes in the forage nutritional composition. These findings provide evidence on the rumen microbial diversity of yaks in the QTP.

Dataset Information

Flower evolution of alpine forbs in the open top chambers (OTCs) from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Publications

Flower evolution of alpine forbs in the open top chambers (OTCs) from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

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