Herbivore grazing changed the relationship between spatial heterogeneity of soil nitrogen availability and plant diversity in meadow steppe of China

摘要

The relationship between spatial environmental heterogeneity and species diversity (HDR) is one of the principal concepts of community ecology.Heterogeneity in soil resource availability is widely considered to promote species coexistence and diversity through increasing niche availability and thus reducing interspecific competition.Although it is widely thought that heterogeneous environments should maintain more species than homogeneous ones, empirical evidence of the true trend of HDR is surprisingly scarce.Contrary to conventional theory, negative HDR relationships have also been reported.In the grassland ecosystem, large herbivore grazing is important disturbance factors.The experimental evidences are more lacking to examine whether and how herbivore grazing affect the relationships between plant diversity and soil nutrient distribution.