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Sand Vegetation and Restoration

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 15317

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Prof. Dr. Zhenying Huang

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Guest Editor

Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Interests: ecology; biodiversity & conservation; seed ecology; plant physiology; plant ecophysiology; dryland vegetation and restoration

Prof. Dr. Qi Lu

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Guest Editor

Institute of Ecological Conservation and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Interests: desert ecology; plant phenology; vegetation restoration; spatiotemporal pattern of vegetation; desert management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Bo Wu

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Institute of Ecological Conservation and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Interests: desert ecology; landscape ecology; ecological process of desertification; global change ecology; conservation biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Zhimin Liu

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Guest Editor

Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Interests: seed ecology; bud bank; clonal growth; and grassland desertification combating
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Land desertification and the deteriorating ecological environment have posed serious threats to global ecological security and sustainable social and economic development. Sandy vegetation is a kind of vegetation that grows on sandy soils and has important ecological functions. It is very important to prevent desertification, restore vegetation, and promote the coordinated development of ecology and the economy. This Special Issue aims to collect high-quality manuscripts regarding, but not limited to, the following topics:

Sandy vegetation characteristics;
Sandy grassland resources;
Ecological adaptation of sandy plants;
Sandy soil seed banks;
Sandy soil microorganisms and plants;
Theory and principle for sandy vegetation restoration;
Sandy vegetation restoration technologies;
Sandy artificial grassland establishment;
Shrub planting;
Sandy forage grass;
Sandy grassland planting technology;
Sandy grassland rational utilization;
Dryland vegetation;
Physiology of sandy vegetation;
Sandy vegetation breeding.

Prof. Dr. Zhenying Huang
Prof. Dr. Qi Lu
Prof. Dr. Bo Wu
Prof. Dr. Zhimin Liu
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

ecological adaptation
sandy vegetation breeding
sandy vegetation management
dryland vegetation
grassland planting
sandy ecology

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3117 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Different Responses of Growing Season Ecosystem CO₂ Fluxes to Rain Addition in a Desert Ecosystem

by Xiaotian Xu, Bo Wu, Fang Bao, Ying Gao, Xinle Li, Yanli Cao, Qi Lu, Junliang Gao, Zhiming Xin and Minghu Liu

Plants 2023, 12(5), 1158; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12051158 - 3 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1244

Abstract

Desert ecosystem CO₂ exchange may play an important role in global carbon cycling. However, it is still not clear how the CO₂ fluxes of shrub-dominated desert ecosystems respond to precipitation changes. We performed a 10-year long-term rain addition experiment in a Nitraria tangutorum desert ecosystem in northwestern China. In the growing seasons of 2016 and 2017, with three rain addition treatments (natural precipitation +0%, +50%, and +100% of annual average precipitation), gross ecosystem photosynthesis (GEP), ecosystem respiration (ER), and net ecosystem CO₂ exchange (NEE) were measured. The GEP responded nonlinearly and the ER linearly to rain addition. The NEE presented a nonlinear response along the rain addition gradient, with a saturation threshold by rain addition between +50% and +100%. The growing season mean NEE ranged from −2.25 to −5.38 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹, showing net CO₂ uptake effect, with significant enhancement (more negative) under the rain addition treatments. Although natural rainfall fluctuated greatly in the growing seasons of 2016 and 2017, reaching 134.8% and 44.0% of the historical average, the NEE values remained stable. Our findings highlight that growing season CO₂ sequestration in desert ecosystems will increase against the background of increasing precipitation levels. The different responses of GEP and ER of desert ecosystems under changing precipitation regimes should be considered in global change models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sand Vegetation and Restoration)

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16 pages, 5743 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Relationship and Influencing Factors between Endangered Plant Tetraena mongolica and Soil Microorganisms in West Ordos Desert Ecosystem, Northern China

by Zhangkai Liu, Congwen Wang, Xuejun Yang, Guofang Liu, Qingguo Cui, Tuvshintogtokh Indree, Xuehua Ye and Zhenying Huang

Plants 2023, 12(5), 1048; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12051048 - 25 Feb 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1511

Abstract

Soil microorganisms play crucial roles in improving nutrient cycling, maintaining soil fertility in desert ecosystems such as the West Ordos desert ecosystem in Northern China, which is home to a variety of endangered plants. However, the relationship between the plants–microorganisms–soil in the West Ordos desert ecosystem is still unclear. Tetraena mongolica, an endangered and dominant plant species in West Ordos, was selected as the research object in the present study. Results showed that (1) there were ten plant species in the Tetraena mongolica community, belonging to seven families and nine genera, respectively. The soil was strongly alkaline (pH = 9.22 ± 0.12) and the soil nutrients were relatively poor; (2) fungal diversity was more closely related to shrub diversity than bacterial and archaeal diversity; (3) among the fungal functional groups, endomycorrhizal led to a significant negative correlation between shrub diversity and fungal diversity, because endomycorrhizal had a significant positive effect on the dominance of T. mongolica, but had no significant effect on other shrubs; (4) plant diversity had a significant positive correlation with the soil inorganic carbon (SIC), total carbon (TC), available phosphorus (AVP) and available potassium (AVK). This study revealed the effects of soil properties and soil microorganisms on the community structure and the growth of T. mongolica and provided a theoretical basis for the conservation of T. mongolica and the maintenance of biodiversity in desert ecosystems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sand Vegetation and Restoration)

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11 pages, 839 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Amelioration of Grazing through Physiological Integration by a Clonal Dune Plant

by Jonathan P. Evans, Shelby Meckstroth and Julie Garai

Plants 2023, 12(4), 724; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12040724 - 6 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1325

Abstract

Rhizomatous growth and associated physiological integration can allow a clonal dune species to potentially compensate for the selective removal of leaves associated with herbivory. Hydrocotyle bonariensis is a rhizomatous clonal plant species that is abundant in the coastal dune environments of the southeastern United States that are inhabited by large feral horse populations. H. bonariensis has been shown to integrate resources among ramets within extensive clones as an adaptation to resource heterogeneity in sandy soils. In this study, we hypothesized that clonal integration is a mechanism that promotes H. bonariensis persistence in these communities, despite high levels of herbivory by feral horses. In a field experiment, we used exclosures to test for herbivory in H. bonariensis over a four-month period. We found that feral horses utilized H. bonariensis as a food species, and that while grazing will suppress clonal biomass, H. bonariensis is able to maintain populations in a high grazing regime with and without competition present. We then conducted an experiment in which portions of H. bonariensis clones were clipped to simulate different levels of grazing. Half of the clones were severed to eliminate the possibility of integration. We found that after 12 weeks, the mean number of leaves and ramets increased as the grazing level increased, for integrated clones. Integrated clones had significantly increased biomass production compared to the severed equivalents. Our research suggests that rhizomatous growth and physiological integration are traits that allow clonal plant species to maintain populations and to tolerate grazing in coastal dune environments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sand Vegetation and Restoration)

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16 pages, 2741 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ecological Stoichiometric Characteristics in Organs of Ammopiptanthus mongolicus in Different Habitats

by Xue Dong, Jinbo Zhang, Zhiming Xin, Yaru Huang, Chunxia Han, Yonghua Li and Qi Lu

Plants 2023, 12(2), 414; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12020414 - 16 Jan 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1461

Abstract

The essence of plant ecological stoichiometry is to study the relationships between species and their environment, including nutrient absorption, utilization and cycling processes as well as the nutrient limitation of plants. Plants can regulate nutrient elements and adapt to environmental changes. To understand the adaptation mechanism, it is important to take plants as a whole and quantify the correlation between the chemometrics of different organs. Ammopiptanthus mongolicus is within the second-class group of rare–endangered plants in China and is the only evergreen broad-leaved shrub in desert areas. We analyzed the ecological stoichiometric characteristics of leaves, stems, roots, flowers and seeds of A. mongolicus in five habitats, namely fixed sandy land, semi-fixed sandy land, stony–sandy land, alluvial gravel slope and saline–alkali land. We found that (1) the nutrient contents of N, P and K were in the order of seed > flower > leaf > root > stem. The enrichment of the N, P and K in the reproductive organs promoted the transition from vegetative growth to reproductive growth. Additionally, (2) the contents of C, N, P and K and their stoichiometric ratios in different organs varied among different habitat types. The storage capacity of C, N and P was higher in sandy soil (fixed and semi-fixed sandy land), whereas the content of K was higher in gravelly soil (stony–sandy land and alluvial gravel slope), and the C:N, C:P and N:P were significantly higher in gravelly soil than those in sandy soil. A. mongolicus had higher nutrient use efficiency in stony–sandy land and alluvial gravel slope. Furthermore, (3) the C:N and N:P ratios in each organ were relatively stable among different habitats, whereas the K:P ratio varied greatly. The N:P ratios of leaves were all greater than 16 in different habitats, indicating that the growth was mainly limited by P. Moreover, (4) except for the P element, the content of each element and its stoichiometric ratio were affected by the interaction between organs and habitat. Habitat had a greater impact on C content, whereas organs had a greater influence on N, P and K content and C:N, C:P, C:K and N:P. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sand Vegetation and Restoration)

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15 pages, 3792 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Atmospheric Vapor Impact on Desert Vegetation and Desert Ecohydrological System

by Zhiming Xin, Wei Feng, Hongbin Zhan, Xuying Bai, Wenbin Yang, Yiben Cheng and Xiuqin Wu

Plants 2023, 12(2), 223; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12020223 - 4 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2157

Abstract

The ability of plants to absorb unsaturated atmospheric water vapor is a controversial topic. To study how vegetation in arid areas survives under limited water resources, this study uses Tamarisk in the Ulan Buh Desert of China as an example. The in-situ observation of a newly designed Lysimeter and sap flow meter system were used to monitor the precipitation infiltration and the utilization efficiency of Tamarisk of atmospheric vapor. The results show that the annual precipitation of 84 mm in arid areas could still result in deep soil recharge (DSR) with a recharge rate of 5 mm/year. Furthermore, DSR is detectable even in the winter, and the 5-year average DSR was 5.77% of the annual precipitation. It appears that the small precipitation events are critically important for the survival of Tamarisk. When the atmospheric relative humidity reaches 70%, Tamarisk leaves can absorb the unsaturated atmospheric vapor, which accounts for 13.2% of the annual precipitation amount. To adapt to the arid environment, Tamarisk can harvest its water supply from several sources including atmospheric vapor and micro-precipitation events (whose precipitation is below the measurement limit of 0.2 mm of the precipitation gauge) and can still permit a certain amount of recharge to replenish the deep soil moisture. Such an ecohydrological dynamic is of great significance to desert vegetation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sand Vegetation and Restoration)

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13 pages, 2124 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Contrasting Regulators of the Onset and End of the Seed Release Phenology of a Temperate Desert Shrub Nitraria tangutorum

by Fang Bao, Zhiming Xin, Minghu Liu, Jiazhu Li, Ying Gao, Qi Lu and Bo Wu

Plants 2023, 12(1), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12010088 - 23 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1113

Abstract

Seed release is crucial in the reproductive cycle of many desert plant species, but their responses to precipitation changes are still unclear. To clarify the response patterns, we conducted a long-term in situ water addition experiment with five treatments, including natural precipitation (control) plus an extra 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the local mean annual precipitation (145 mm), in a temperate desert in northwestern China. Both the onset and end of the seed release phenophase of the locally dominant shrub, Nitraria tangutorum, were observed from 2012 to 2018. The results showed that both the onset and end time of seed release, especially the end time, were significantly affected by water addition treatment. On average, the end time of seed release was advanced by 3.9 d, 7.3 d, 10.8 d, and 3.8 d under +25%, +50%, +75%, and +100% water addition treatments, respectively, over the seven-year study, compared with the control. The changes in the onset time were relatively small (only several hours), and the duration of seed release was shortened by 4.0 d, 7.5 d, 10.8 d, and 2.0 d under +25%, +50%, +75%, and +100% water addition treatments, respectively. The onset and end time of seed release varied greatly between the years. Preceding fruit ripening and summer temperature jointly regulated the inter-annual variation of the onset time of seed release, while the cumulative summer precipitation played a key role in driving the inter-annual variation of the end time. The annual mean temperature controlled the inter-annual variation of the seed release duration, and these interactions were all non-linear. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sand Vegetation and Restoration)

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14 pages, 1524 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Grassland Degradation Has Stronger Effects on Soil Fungal Community Than Bacterial Community across the Semi-Arid Region of Northern China

by Congwen Wang, Zhangkai Liu, Wanying Yu, Xuehua Ye, Linna Ma, Renzhong Wang, Zhenying Huang and Guofang Liu

Plants 2022, 11(24), 3488; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11243488 - 13 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1468

Abstract

Soil microbes play crucial roles in grassland ecosystem functions, such as soil carbon (C) pool and nutrient cycle. Soil microbes in grasslands are susceptible to the degradation mediated by climate change and anthropogenic disturbance. However, research on how the degradation influences the diversity and community structure of different soil microbial taxa is relatively scarce. We conducted a large-scale field survey to describe the effects of four degradation levels (PD: potential degradation, LD: light degradation, MD: moderate degradation, and SD: severe degradation) on soil bacterial and fungal community in the semi-arid grasslands of northern China. We found that soil moisture, nutrients, and clay content decreased, but soil sand content increased along the increasing degradation gradient. However, the degradation had no effects on soil pH and the C:N ratio. Grassland degradation had non-significant effect on soil bacterial diversity, but it significantly affected soil bacterial community structure. The degradation decreased soil fungal diversity and had a relatively larger influence on the community structure of soil fungi than that of bacteria. The community composition and structure of soil fungi were mainly affected by soil nutrients and texture, while those of soil bacteria were mainly affected by soil pH. These results indicate that changes in soil properties induced by grassland degradation mainly drive the variation in the soil fungal community and have less effect on the soil bacterial community. This study reveals the sensitivity of soil fungal community to grassland degradation, highlighting the priority of soil fungal community for the management and restoration of degraded grasslands. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sand Vegetation and Restoration)

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17 pages, 3354 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Response Mechanisms of Adventitious Root Architectural Characteristics of Nitraria tangutorum Shrubs to Soil Nutrients in Nabkha

by Xiaole Li, Xiaohong Dang, Yong Gao, Zhongju Meng, Xue Chen and Yanyi Wang

Plants 2022, 11(23), 3218; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11233218 - 24 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1281

Abstract

The adventitious roots of desert shrubs respond to a nabkhas soil environment by adjusting their configuration characteristics, but the mechanism of this response and the main influencing factors are still unclear. To illustrate this response pattern, Nitraria tangutorum Bobrov, Sovetsk. in West Ordos National Nature Reserve was studied, and the shrub was divided into three growth stages: the rudimental stage, developing stage, and stabilizing stage. A combination of total root excavation and root tracing was used to investigate their adventitious root morphology. The results show the following: (1) As the shrub grows, the ability to accumulate sand into nabkhas increases. (2) The soil nutrient accumulation capacity increased with shrub growth. The “fertilizer island effect” was formed in the nutrient developing stage and stabilizing stage of nabkhas soil, but the rudimental stage was not formed. (3) The adventitious root architecture of N. tangutorum at different growth stages was all herringbone with a simple branch structure. With the growth in N. tangutorum, the root diameter of each level gradually increased, the branches of the shrub grew gradually complicated, and the range of resource utilization gradually expanded. (4) Redundancy analysis (RDA) results show that soil organic carbon (SOC) was the main factor affecting the adventitious root architecture. The results of this study reveal the adjustments the adventitious root architecture of N. tangutorum make in order to adapt to the stress environment and provide data support for the protection of natural vegetation in West Ordos. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sand Vegetation and Restoration)

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11 pages, 1649 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Rhizome Severing on Survival and Growth of Rhizomatous Herb Phragmites communis Is Regulated by Sand Burial Depth

by Shanshan Zhai, Jianqiang Qian, Qun Ma, Zhimin Liu, Chaoqun Ba, Zhiming Xin, Liang Tian, Lu Zong, Wei Liang and Jinlei Zhu

Plants 2022, 11(23), 3191; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11233191 - 22 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1172

Abstract

Rhizome fragmentation and sand burial are common phenomena in rhizomatous clonal plants. These traits serve as an adaptive strategy for survival in stressful environments. Thus far, some studies have been carried out on the effects of rhizome fragmentation and sand burial, but how the interaction between rhizome fragmentation and sand burial affects the growth and reproduction of rhizomatous clonal plants is unclear. We investigated the effect of the burial depth and rhizome fragment size on the survival and growth of the rhizomatous herb Phragmites communis using 288 clonal fragments (6 burial depths × 8 clonal fragment sizes × 6 replicates) in a field rhizome severing experiment. The ramet survival of the rhizomatous species significantly increased with the sand burial depth and clonal fragment size (p < 0.01), and the effects of the clonal fragment size on ramet survival depended on the sand burial depth. Sand burial enhanced both the vertical and horizontal biomass (p < 0.05), while the clonal fragment size affected the vertical biomass rather than the horizontal biomass. Sand burial facilitated the vertical growth of ramets (p < 0.05) while the number of newly produced ramets firstly increased and then decreased with the increasing clonal fragment size, and the maximal value appeared in four clonal fragments under a heavy sand burial depth. There is an interaction between the burial depth and rhizome fragment size in the growth of rhizome herbaceous plants. The population growth increases in the increase of sand burial depth, and reaches the maximum under severe sand burial and moderate rhizome fragmentation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sand Vegetation and Restoration)

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16 pages, 4312 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Preceding Phenological Events Rather than Climate Drive the Variations in Fruiting Phenology in the Desert Shrub Nitraria tangutorum

by Fang Bao, Zhiming Xin, Minghu Liu, Jiazhu Li, Ying Gao, Qi Lu and Bo Wu

Plants 2022, 11(12), 1578; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11121578 - 15 Jun 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1313

Abstract

Fruit setting and ripening are crucial in the reproductive cycle of many desert plant species, but their response to precipitation changes is still unclear. To clarify the response patterns, a long-term in situ water addition experiment with five treatments, namely natural precipitation (control) plus an extra 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the local mean annual precipitation (145 mm), was conducted in a temperate desert in northwestern China. A whole series of fruiting events including the onset, peak, and end of fruit setting and the onset, peak, and end of fruit ripening of a locally dominant shrub, Nitraria tangutorum, were observed from 2012 to 2018. The results show that (1) water addition treatments had no significant effects on all six fruiting events in almost all years, and the occurrence time of almost all fruiting events remained relatively stable compared with leaf phenology and flowering phenology after the water addition treatments; (2) the occurrence times of all fruiting events were not correlated to the amounts of water added in the treatments; (3) there are significant inter-annual variations in each fruiting event. However, neither temperature nor precipitation play key roles, but the preceding flowering events drive their inter-annual variation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sand Vegetation and Restoration)

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