In Situ Vegetation and Soil Dataset from Two Different Situations of Alpine Meadow in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

YANG Zhenan1,2,3CHEN Huai3

1 College of Life Science，China West Normal University，Nanchong 637002，China2 College of Forestry，Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University，Yangling 712100，China3 Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bio-resource Utilization ＆ Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province，Chengdu Institute of Biology，Chinese Academy of Sciences，Chengdu 610041，China

DOI:10.3974/geodb.2018.07.04.V1

Published:Nov. 2018

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Key Words：

community,biomass,nutrients,ecological stoichiometric,Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau,Acta Ecologica Sinica

Abstract：

Due to the harsh climate and high altitude on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), Alpine Meadow which is the dominant vegetation on the plateau, could be degenerate easily as a result of the overgrazing. To understand the responses of alpine meadow and top soil as well as their linkage on the QTP to short term grazing prohibition, we sampled from an enclosed winter pasture for two years (short-time grazing prohibition) at the Zoige Wetland Ecosystem Research Station, Chinese Academy of Science, in Hongyuan County on the northeastern margin of QTP. The sample sites were selected at random in the field; the community coverage was recorded; the aboveground (shoots) and belowground (roots) of grass were collected. We weighed the shoots and roots biomass and the root-shoot ratio (R/S), and measured the concentrations of total carbon (C), total nitrogen (N) and total phosphorus (P) content of vegetation and top soil (0-10 cm), as well as the ecological stoichiometric linkages of the main nutrients. The results showed that the linkage of main nutrients between vegetation and top soil in alpine meadow only exists in part of plant organs or with certain nutrients, and that different grassland management measures have different effects on the distribution and balance of vegetation and soil nutrients of the alpine meadow. The dataset includes: (1) vegetation characteristics under grazing prohibition and grazing; (2) concentration and stoichiometric ratio of nutrients under grazing prohibition and grazing; (3) soil (0-10 cm) properties and stoichiometric characteristics dynamic change under grazing prohibition and grazing; (4) correlation between nutrients of vegetation and soil (0-10 cm, n = 9) under grazing prohibition and grazing; (5) Correlation between stoichiometry characteristics of vegetation and soil (0-10 cm, n = 9) under grazing prohibition and grazing. The dataset was archived in .xlsx data format with data size of 18.8 KB. The analysis paper based on the dataset was published at the journal of Acta Ecologica Sinica, Vol. 37, No. 23, 2017.

Foundation Item：

Ministry of Science and Technology of P. R. China (2016YFC0501804); Sichuan Province (2015TD0026)

Data Citation：

YANG Zhenan, CHEN Huai. In Situ Vegetation and Soil Dataset from Two Different Situations of Alpine Meadow in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau[J/DB/OL]. Digital Journal of Global Change Data Repository, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3974/geodb.2018.07.04.V1.

Data Product: