Response of Gross Primary Productivity to Water Availability at Different Temporal Scales in a Typical Steppe in Inner Mongolia Temperate Steppe

Guo Qun; Li Shenggong; Hu Zhongmin; Zhao Wei; Wang Min

doi:10.7522/j.issn.1000-694X.2015.00065

2015 , Vol. 35 >Issue 3: 616 - 623

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7522/j.issn.1000-694X.2015.00065

Response of Gross Primary Productivity to Water Availability at Different Temporal Scales in a Typical Steppe in Inner Mongolia Temperate Steppe

Guo Qun ,
Li Shenggong ,
Hu Zhongmin ,
Zhao Wei ,
Wang Min

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1. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;
2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
3. Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China, Beijing 100029, China

Received date: 2015-02-04

Revised date: 2015-04-06

Online published: 2015-05-20

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Abstract

Water is a main driver to the productivity of grassland in arid and semi-arid area, however, we have quite limit knowledge about how water availability impacts the intra-annual variations of productivity. In this study, we quantified the effects of water availability on productivity at different temporal scales based on daily gross primary productivity (GPP) measured by a multichannel automated chamber system and annual aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) evaluated by normalized difference vegetation index. Our results showed that there were no significant effects of annual precipitation on the inter-annual variations of ANPP. However, we found a similar seasonal dynamics of GPP with the soil water content, and soil water content remarkably affected GPP. Soil water content contributed to the 22% intra-annual variations of GPP. Our results also demonstrated that besides soil water, there were other environmental factors that affected the intra-annual variations of GPP. Air temperature determined the intra-annual variations of GPP when the soil water condition was relatively dry, and GPP decreased with increasing air temperature. Radiation was the dominant factor to affect the intra-annual variations of GPP when the soil water condition was relatively wet, and GPP increased with increasing radiation. The effects of other environmental factors on GPP may explain the weaker explanation power of annual precipitation to the inter-annual variations of productivity. Our results may help to thoroughly understand the effects of altering precipitation regimes on grassland productivity in the future.

Key words： temperate steppe; productivity; precipitation

Cite this article

Guo Qun , Li Shenggong , Hu Zhongmin , Zhao Wei , Wang Min . Response of Gross Primary Productivity to Water Availability at Different Temporal Scales in a Typical Steppe in Inner Mongolia Temperate Steppe[J]. Journal of Desert Research, 2015 , 35(3) : 616 -623 . DOI: 10.7522/j.issn.1000-694X.2015.00065

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