Plant And Soil Microbial Communities Regulate Soil Respiration In Response To Precipitation And Land Use In An Inner Mongolian Grassland

Purpose: Changes in precipitation amount and land use are expected to greatly impact soil respiration (Rs) of grassland ecosystems. However, little is known about whether they can interactively impact Rs and how plant and soil microbial communities regulate the response of Rs. Methods: Here, we investigated the impacts of altered precipitation amount (–50%, ambient and +50%) and land-use regime (fencing, mowing and grazing) on Rs with a field experiment in the Inner Mongolian grassland.Results: We found that altered precipitation amount impacted Rs and its components across the 3-year study period, while land-use regime alone or its interaction with precipitation amount impacted them in certain years. In addition, changed soil microclimate, especially soil moisture, under altered precipitation amount and land-use regime can impact the components of Rs either directly or indirectly via influencing plant and soil microbial communities.Conclusions: Integrating changing precipitation amount and land-use regime within experiment can produce more accurate insights into grassland Rs, and chronically shifted plant and soil microbial communities under these changes may result in distinct long-term impacts on Rs.

Dominant species determine ecosystem stability across scales in Inner Mongolian grassland

There is an urgent need to extend knowledge on ecosystem temporal stability to larger spatial scales because presently available local-scale studies generally do not provide effective guide for management and conservation decisions at the level of an entire region with diverse plant communities. We investigated temporal stability of plant biomass production across spatial scales and hierarchical levels of community organization and analyzed impacts of dominant species, species diversity and climatic factors using a multi-site survey of Inner Mongolian grassland. We found that temporal stability at a large spatial scale, i.e. a large area aggregating multiple local communities, was related to temporal stability of and asynchrony among spatially separated local communities and large-scale population dynamics of dominant species, yet not to species richness. Additionally, a lower mean and higher variation of yearly precipitation destabilized communities at local and large scales by destabilizing dominant species population dynamics. We argue that, for semi-arid temperate grassland, dynamics and precipitation responses of dominant species and asynchrony among local communities stabilize ecosystems at large spatial scales. Our results indicate that reduced amounts and increased variation of precipitation may present key threats to the sustainable provision of biological products and services to human well-being in this region.

Transcriptome Analysis of Chloris virgata, Which Shows the Fastest Germination and Growth in the Major Mongolian Grassland Plant

Plants in Mongolian grasslands are exposed to short, dry summers and long, cold winters. These plants should be prepared for fast germination and growth activity in response to the limited summer rainfall. The wild plant species adapted to the Mongolian grassland environment may allow us to explore useful genes, as a source of unique genetic codes for crop improvement. Here, we identified the Chloris virgata Dornogovi accession as the fastest germinating plant in major Mongolian grassland plants. It germinated just 5 h after treatment for germination initiation and showed rapid growth, especially in its early and young development stages. This indicates its high growth potential compared to grass crops such as rice and wheat. By assessing growth recovery after animal bite treatment (mimicked by cutting the leaves with scissors), we found that C. virgata could rapidly regenerate leaves after being damaged, suggesting high regeneration potential against grazing. To analyze the regulatory mechanism involved in the high growth potential of C. virgata, we performed RNA-seq-based transcriptome analysis and illustrated a comprehensive gene expression map of the species. Through de novo transcriptome assembly with the RNA-seq reads from whole organ samples of C. virgata at the germination stage (2 days after germination, DAG), early young development stage (8 DAG), young development stage (17 DAG), and adult development stage (28 DAG), we identified 21,589 unified transcripts (contigs) and found that 19,346 and 18,156 protein-coding transcripts were homologous to those in rice and Arabidopsis, respectively. The best-aligned sequences were annotated with gene ontology groups. When comparing the transcriptomes across developmental stages, we found an over-representation of genes involved in growth regulation in the early development stage in C. virgata. Plant development is tightly regulated by phytohormones such as brassinosteroids, gibberellic acid, abscisic acid, and strigolactones. Moreover, our transcriptome map demonstrated the expression profiles of orthologs involved in the biosynthesis of these phytohormones and their signaling networks. We discuss the possibility that C. virgata phytohormone signaling and biosynthesis genes regulate early germination and growth advantages. Comprehensive transcriptome information will provide a useful resource for gene discovery and facilitate a deeper understanding of the diversity of the regulatory systems that have evolved in C. virgata while adapting to severe environmental conditions.

Effects of longissimus muscle fatty acid composition in mongolian sheep breeds

This survey to comparative investigates on fat and fatty acid composition in muscles depends on season effects of pastoral and grain fed Mongolian breeds sheep (Mongolian grassland pastoral Mongolian sheep, Inner Mongolian grassland pastoral and grain fed Ujumqin sheep) muscle’s longissimus dorsi. Two breeds three kinds Mongolian sheep muscle’s longissimus dorsi IMF content and fatty acids were analyzed by gas chromatography after methyl esterification. The result reveals that: (1) The IMF content in pastoral of mongolian and Ujumqin sheep muscles was between winter and summer seasons observed extreme differences (p<0.01), but no extreme differences (p>0.01) in grain fed Ujumqin sheep. (2) The result showed that there were 29 identified fatty acids in the muscle’s longissimus dorsi means of winter season pastoral Mongolian, Ujumqin and grain fed Ujumqin sheep, where in the content of palmitic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid were 71.45%, 73.17%, 72.02% of the total content of fatty acids respectively. Also saturated fatty acids accounted for 44.49%, 46.27%, 45.37%; monounsaturated fatty acids accounted for 35.68%, 36.09%, 35.9; polyunsaturated fatty acids accounted for 8.18%, 8.33%, 9.32% respectively. In the summer muscle’s longissimus dorsi means of Mongolian, Ujumqin and grain fed Ujumqin sheep were 31, 31, 26 identified fatty acids, where in the content of palmitic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid were 75.96%, 77.17%, 72.79% of the total content of fatty acids respectively. Also saturated fatty acid accounted for 48.35%, 48.09%, 46.31; monounsaturated fatty acids accounted for 36.46%, 37.66%, 36.54; polyunsaturated fatty acids accounted for 7.07%, 7.43%, 8.05% respectively. Therefore, positive feature of pastoral Mongolian and Ujumqin sheep in muscle’s longissimus dorsi means that levels of the nutritionally important long chain PUFA EPA C20:5, DHA C22:6 was in winter 1.2-1.8%; in summer of the total content of fatty acids 1-1.2% respectively. But grain fed Ujumqin sheep muscle’s different parts means only identified long chain PUFA EPA C20:5 was in winter and summer 0.8% of the total content of fatty acids and lower than pastoral Mongolian and Ujumqin sheep 1%. Монгол хонины нурууны булчин махны тосны хүчлийн бүрдлийн судалгаа Энэхүү судалгаагаар өвөл болон зуны улирлын 2 үүлдэрийн 3 төрлийн Монгол хонины (Бэлчээрийн Монгол, Үзэмчин болон суурин маллагаатай Үзэмчин) нурууны булчин маханд (M. longissimus dorsi) тос болон тосны хүчлийн бүрдлийг харьцуулан судалсан болно. Дээрх 3 төрлийн хонины нурууны булчин эдийн тосыг ялган хэмжээг тогтоож, метил эфиржүүлсний дараа хийн хромотаграфаар тосны хүчлийн бүрэлдэхүүнийн тодорхойлсон. Булчин эдийн тосны агууламжийн үр дүн: Бэлчээрийн Монгол болон Үзэмчин хонины гуяны булчин эдийн тосны агууламж нь өвөл болон зуны улирлын хооронд хэт их утга (p<0.01) илэрсэн. Тосны хүчлийн бүрэлдэхүүний үр дүн: Өвлийн улирлын бэлчээрийн Монгол, Үзэмчин болон суурин маллагаатай Үзэмчин хонины longissimus dorsi булчин эдэд нийт тосны 89.35%, 91.19%, 90.6% -ийг 29 төрлийн тосны хүчил бүрдүүлж түүнээс пальмитины (C16:0), стеарины (C18:0), олеины хүчлүүд (C18:1) хүчлүүд 71.45%, 73.17%, 72.02%-ийг эзэлж байв. Зуны улиралд хонины нурууны булчин эдийн нийт тосны 91.88%, 93.18%, 90.9% -ийг 26-31 төрлийн тосны хүчил бүрдүүлж түүнээс пальмитины (C16:0), стеарины (C18:0), олеины хүчлүүд (C18:1) хүчлүүд 75.96%, 77.17%, 72.79%-ийг тус тус бүрдүүлж байна. Өвлийн улирлын бэлчээрийн Монгол, Үзэмчин болон суурин маллагаатай Үзэмчин хонины нурууны булчин эдийн дундаж ханасан тосны хүчил 44.49%, 46.27%, 45.37%’; мониен хүчил 35.68%, 36.09%, 35.9%; полиен хүчил 8.18%, 8.33%, 9.32%; Зуны улиралд ханасан хүчил 48.35%, 48.09%, 46.31%; мониен хүчил 36.46%, 37.66%, 36.54%; полиен хүчил 7.07%, 7.43%, 8.05% тус тус агуулагдаж байв. Эмчилгээний өндөр ач холбогдолтой гэгдээд байгаа EPA C20:5 болон DHA C22:6 олон холбоот тосны хүчлүүд бэлчээрийн Монгол болон Үзэмчин хонинд эдгээр хүчлийн нийлбэр өвлийн улирал 1.2-1.8%, зуны улиралд 1-1.2% агуулагдаж суурин маллагаатай Үзэмчин хонины нурууны булчин махнаас 1% орчим өндөр агуулагдаж байгаа бэлчээрийн хонины махны ач холбогдлыг илэрхийлэх үндэслэлтэй. Түлхүүр үг: Монгол хонь, Үзэмчин хонь, тосны хүчил, өвөл, зун

Using UAV LiDAR to Extract Vegetation Parameters of Inner Mongolian Grassland

The accurate estimation of grassland vegetation parameters at a high spatial resolution is important for the sustainable management of grassland areas. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors with a single laser beam emission capability can rapidly detect grassland vegetation parameters, such as canopy height, fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) and aboveground biomass (AGB). However, there have been few reports on the ability to detect grassland vegetation parameters based on RIEGL VUX-1 UAV LiDAR (Riegl VUX-1) systems. In this paper, we investigated the ability of Riegl VUX-1 to model the AGB at a 0.1 m pixel resolution in the Hulun Buir grazing platform under different grazing intensities. The LiDAR-derived minimum, mean, and maximum canopy heights and FVC were used to estimate the AGB across the entire grazing platform. The flight height of the LiDAR-derived vegetation parameters was also analyzed. The following results were determined: (1) The Riegl VUX-1-derived AGB was predicted to range from 29 g/m2 to 563 g/m2 under different grazing conditions. (2) The LiDAR-derived maximum canopy height and FVC were the best predictors of grassland AGB (R2 = 0.54, root-mean-square error (RMSE) = 64.76 g/m2). (3) For different UAV flight altitudes from 40 m to 110 m, different flight heights showed no major effect on the derived canopy height. The LiDAR-derived canopy height decreased from 9.19 cm to 8.17 cm, and the standard deviation of the LiDAR-derived canopy height decreased from 3.31 cm to 2.35 cm with increasing UAV flight altitudes. These conclusions could be useful for estimating grasslands in smaller areas and serving as references for other remote sensing datasets for estimating grasslands in larger areas.

The Ethnic Ecocritical Animal: Animal protagonists and ethnic environmentalism in contemporary Sino-Mongolian literature and art

Drawing on ideas from ecocriticism, literary animal studies, and post-colonial studies, as well as anthropology and cultural studies, this article examines the representations of animals in contemporary Sino-Mongolian literature and art, and the various connections between these representations and issues related to ethnic and environmental politics. I propose that the intensive engagement of Chinese-Mongolian writers and artists with animals is related first and foremost to the central role that animals, both wild and domesticated, have traditionally played in Mongolian nomadic pastoralist culture. However, I also argue that it is closely connected to two interrelated processes that are currently taking place in Inner Mongolia: the severe degradation of the Inner Mongolian grassland and the rapid sinicization of China's Mongols. I suggest that in the context of this environmental and cultural crisis, the engagement with animals reflects anxiety about the fate of the Inner Mongolian grassland, the fate of real animals, which, for centuries, have been closely associated with this landscape and Mongolian nomadic culture, and, most importantly, the fate of Mongolian culture itself. I also argue that Sino-Mongolian writers and artists use literary and artistic animals to construct and assert Mongolianness as part of their search for an ‘authentic’ ethnic identity, and to comment critically on the impact that Chinese domination has had on the Inner Mongolian grassland, its indigenous human and non-human inhabitants, and Mongolian culture and identity. Finally, I propose that through their ethnic environmentalism, Chinese-Mongolian artists and writers have made an important contribution to the development of China's environmental movement.