Effect of desertification on productivity in a desert steppe

Desertification, one of the most severe types of land degradation in the world, is of great importance because it is occurring, to some degree, on approximately 40% of the global land area and is affecting more than 1 billion people. In this study, we used a space-for-time method to quantify the imp...

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Main Authors:	Tang, Zhuangsheng, An, Hui, Deng, Lei, Wang, Yingying, Zhu, Guangyu, Shangguan, Zhouping
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Nature Publishing Group 2016
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4906523/

id	pubmed-4906523
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-49065232016-06-15 Effect of desertification on productivity in a desert steppe Tang, Zhuangsheng An, Hui Deng, Lei Wang, Yingying Zhu, Guangyu Shangguan, Zhouping Article Desertification, one of the most severe types of land degradation in the world, is of great importance because it is occurring, to some degree, on approximately 40% of the global land area and is affecting more than 1 billion people. In this study, we used a space-for-time method to quantify the impact of five different desertification regimes (potential (PD), light (LD), moderate (MD), severe (SD), and very severe (VSD)) on a desert steppe ecosystem in northern China to examine the relationship between the productivity of the vegetation and soil properties and to determine the mechanism underlying the effects of desertification on productivity. Our results showed that the effects of desertification on TP (total phosphorus) and AP (available phosphorus) were not significant, and desertification decreased productivity in the desert steppe as a result of direct changes to soil physical properties, which can directly affect soil chemical properties. Therefore, intensive grassland management to improve soil quality may result in the long-term preservation of ecosystem functions and services. Nature Publishing Group 2016-06-14 /pmc/articles/PMC4906523/ /pubmed/27297202 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep27839 Text en Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Tang, Zhuangsheng An, Hui Deng, Lei Wang, Yingying Zhu, Guangyu Shangguan, Zhouping
spellingShingle	Tang, Zhuangsheng An, Hui Deng, Lei Wang, Yingying Zhu, Guangyu Shangguan, Zhouping Effect of desertification on productivity in a desert steppe
author_facet	Tang, Zhuangsheng An, Hui Deng, Lei Wang, Yingying Zhu, Guangyu Shangguan, Zhouping
author_sort	Tang, Zhuangsheng
title	Effect of desertification on productivity in a desert steppe
title_short	Effect of desertification on productivity in a desert steppe
title_full	Effect of desertification on productivity in a desert steppe
title_fullStr	Effect of desertification on productivity in a desert steppe
title_full_unstemmed	Effect of desertification on productivity in a desert steppe
title_sort	effect of desertification on productivity in a desert steppe
description	Desertification, one of the most severe types of land degradation in the world, is of great importance because it is occurring, to some degree, on approximately 40% of the global land area and is affecting more than 1 billion people. In this study, we used a space-for-time method to quantify the impact of five different desertification regimes (potential (PD), light (LD), moderate (MD), severe (SD), and very severe (VSD)) on a desert steppe ecosystem in northern China to examine the relationship between the productivity of the vegetation and soil properties and to determine the mechanism underlying the effects of desertification on productivity. Our results showed that the effects of desertification on TP (total phosphorus) and AP (available phosphorus) were not significant, and desertification decreased productivity in the desert steppe as a result of direct changes to soil physical properties, which can directly affect soil chemical properties. Therefore, intensive grassland management to improve soil quality may result in the long-term preservation of ecosystem functions and services.
publisher	Nature Publishing Group
publishDate	2016
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4906523/
_version_	1613594212798824448

Effect of desertification on productivity in a desert steppe

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