Title: Variations in δ13C values among major plant community types in the Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia, China
Abstract: The δ13C values of 51 plant species selected from eight plant communities along a moisture gradient were measured. Our results showed that all the community types that we investigated are dominated by C3 species in the Xilin River Basin. Large variations in the average 13C natural abundance of different communities were detected, and the magnitude of δ13C values showed the following trend: typical steppe (–23.0‰) > degraded steppe (–23.5‰) > sand dune (–25.0‰) > restoring degraded steppe (–25.8‰) > meadow steppe (–26.4‰) ≥ saline meadow (–26.5‰) > swamp meadow (–28.2‰). The major determinants of the biomass-weighted δ13C values in a given community were the presence or absence of C4 plants, the intrinsic variation among species and the variation of the same species growing in different habitats with different soil-moisture regimes and disturbance history. These results suggested that different habitats support dominant species with different water-use efficiencies and a trend in the community-level δ13C values was observed, as ascribed by the contribution of C4 plants and/or the variations among species or the response of water-use efficiency of the same species to different soil moisture conditions.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 17
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