[1]WU Ke,XU Wenxuan,YANG Weikang.Impact of Rainfall Changes on Plant Community in Junggar Desert[J].Research of Soil and Water Conservation,2019,26(05):100-106.
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Research of Soil and Water Conservation[ISSN 1005-3409/CN 61-1272/P] Volume:
26
Number of periods:
2019 05
Page number:
100-106
Column:
Public date:
2019-09-06
- Title:
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Impact of Rainfall Changes on Plant Community in Junggar Desert
- Author(s):
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WU Ke1,2, XU Wenxuan1, YANG Weikang1
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1. Key Laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresources in Arid Land, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China;
2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
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- Keywords:
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desert grassland; rainfall changes; plant community; productivity
- CLC:
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Q948
- DOI:
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- Abstract:
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Studies on the mechanism of precipitation change on desert plant communities not only can reveal the influence of climate change on desert ecosystem in the future, but also helps evaluate the health index and succession trend, which have important theoretical and practical significance on sustainable management of desert rangeland. This research focuses on the desert rangeland in southeast edge of Junggar basin, northern Xinjiang. The effects of rainfall changes on desert vegetation in growing season (from April to September) were measured after field experiment, rain shelters and irrigation device were used to control the rainfall amount, and five rainfall treatments were set up:reduced 60%, reduced 30%, CK, increased 30% and increased 60%. Before the experiment, there are no significant differences (p>0.05) in different treatment plots. After 2 years field experiment on rainfall control, the species richness showed a stable upward trend with the increasing of rainfall amount, with significant difference between the rainfall gradients (p < 0.05). In terms of vegetation coverage, the coverage of shrubs and perennial herbs and total coverage has positive correlation with rainfall amount(p<0.05), while the coverage of annual plants has no correlation with rainfall amount. The results of this study indicated that the reduced rainfall affected the rangeland of Junggar desert compared with the extreme situation of annual rainfall increased by 60%, the normal annual rainfall increased by 30% is more beneficial to the maintenance of species diversity and the improvement of productivity of desert plant community.