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Plants
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Vegetation Dynamics and Ecological Restoration in Alpine Ecosystems
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Vegetation Dynamics and Ecological Restoration in Alpine Ecosystems

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 786

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Peili Shi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: Alpine Plant Ecology with special interests in eco-physiology of alpine plant life, coupling of water, carbon and nitrogen cycling of alpine ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Zhanhuan Shang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Interests: restoration ecology; chemical ecology; sustainable development in arid and alpine areas
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Land degradation induced by environmental changes and anthropogenic activities has become one of the most challenging issues of global ecological security and sustainable development. The alpine ecosystems are vulnerable to rapid degradation caused by overgrazing, deforestation, biological invasion and unprecedented land-use changes, which are execrated by climate warming. Although the roles of biotic and abiotic processes in accelerating plant community succession and ecosystem degradation are well recognized, most studies have concentrated only on single role, but not their interactions, on the vegetation dynamics, ecosystem functioning and thereby multiple benefits. As such, the vegetation change, vulnerability, degradation and its consequences as well as evidence-based solutions to restoration and sustainable land use remain largely unknown. This special issue of Plants will highlight the plant community succession, vegetation dynamics, mechanisms of ecosystem degradation, restoration solutions and their roles in maintaining biodiversity and enhancing ecosystem multifunctionality, and thereby provide insight into the sustainable ecosystem management.

Prof. Dr. Peili Shi
Prof. Dr. Zhanhuan Shang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • vegetation dynamics
  • plant community succession
  • plant-plant interactions
  • ecosystem degradation
  • biodiversity-ecosystem functioning
  • community stability and resilience
  • multiple ecosystem services
  • ecological restoration

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 6617 KiB  
Article
In the Qaidam Basin, Soil Nutrients Directly or Indirectly Affect Desert Ecosystem Stability under Drought Stress through Plant Nutrients
by Yunhao Zhao, Hui Chen, Hongyan Sun and Fan Yang
Plants 2024, 13(13), 1849; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13131849 - 5 Jul 2024
Viewed by 481
Abstract
The low nutrient content of soil in desert ecosystems results in unique physiological and ecological characteristics of plants under long-term water and nutrient stress, which is the basis for the productivity and stability maintenance of the desert ecosystem. However, the relationship between the [...] Read more.
The low nutrient content of soil in desert ecosystems results in unique physiological and ecological characteristics of plants under long-term water and nutrient stress, which is the basis for the productivity and stability maintenance of the desert ecosystem. However, the relationship between the soil and the plant nutrient elements in the desert ecosystem and its mechanism for maintaining ecosystem stability is still unclear. In this study, 35 sampling sites were established in an area with typical desert vegetation in the Qaidam Basin, based on a drought gradient. A total of 90 soil samples and 100 plant samples were collected, and the soil’s physico-chemical properties, as well as the nutrient elements in the plant leaves, were measured. Regression analysis, redundancy analysis (RDA), the Theil–Sen Median and Mann–Kendall methods, the structural equation model (SEM), and other methods were employed to analyze the distribution characteristics of the soil and plant nutrient elements along the drought gradient and the relationship between the soil and leaf nutrient elements and its impact on ecosystem stability. The results provided the following conclusions: Compared with the nutrient elements in plant leaves, the soil’s nutrient elements had a more obvious regularity of distribution along the drought gradient. A strong correlation was observed between the soil and leaf nutrient elements, with soil organic carbon and alkali-hydrolyzed nitrogen identified as important factors influencing the leaf nutrient content. The SEM showed that the soil’s organic carbon had a positive effect on ecosystem stability by influencing the leaf carbon, while the soil’s available phosphorus and the mean annual temperature had a direct positive effect on stability, and the soil’s total nitrogen had a negative effect on stability. In general, the soil nutrient content was high in areas with a low mean annual temperature and high precipitation, and the ecosystem stability in the area distribution of typical desert vegetation in the Qaidam Basin was low. These findings reveal that soil nutrients affect the stability of desert ecosystems directly or indirectly through plant nutrients in the Qaidam Basin, which is crucial for maintaining the stability of desert ecosystems with the background of climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetation Dynamics and Ecological Restoration in Alpine Ecosystems)
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