Litong Chen

Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology · Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota

In many plant species, leaf morphology varies with altitude, an effect that has been attributed to temperature. It remains uncertain whether such a trend applies equally to juvenile and mature trees across altitudinal gradients in semi-arid mountain regions. We examined altitude-related differences in a variety of needle characteristics of juvenile...

Aims With a close association with plant water availability, foliar δ13C had been investigated extensively in alpine regions; however, foliar δ15N has rarely been concurrently used as an indicator of plant nitrogen availability. Due to the positive correlations between leaf nitrogen content and foliar δ13C and δ15N found in previous studies, we exp...

Based on field observations, remote sensing, and modeling, recent studies have reported inconsistent changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau over the past few decades. However, direct evidence about the changes in SOC stocks in the plateau's grasslands coming from in situ, site-by-site, repeated surveys is r...

Aim Most existing studies that examined the biotic mechanisms of ecosystem stability have focused on aboveground biodiversity. Whether and how belowground biodiversity affects the stability of natural ecosystems is largely unknown. In the present study, we investigated the relationships between above- and belowground biodiversity and the temporal s...

Field spectroscopy is a powerful tool for monitoring leaf functional traits in situ, but it remains unclear whether universal statistical models can be developed to predict traits from spectral information, or whether re-calibration is necessary as conditions vary. In particular, multiple leaf traits vary simultaneously across growing seasons, and...

Climate projection requires an accurate understanding for soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition and its response to warming. An emergent view considers that environmental constraints rather than chemical structure alone control SOC turnover and its temperature sensitivity (i.e., Q10 ), but direct long-term evidence is lacking. Here, using compoun...

A growing body of work examines the direct and indirect effects of climate change on ecosystems, typically by using manipulative experiments at a single site or performing meta-analyses across many independent experiments. However, results from single-site studies tend to have limited generality. Although meta-analytic approaches can help overcome...

Hydrological changes under climate warming drive the biogeomorphic succession of wetlands and may trigger substantial carbon loss from the carbon-rich ecosystems. Although many studies have explored the responses of wetland carbon emissions to short-term hydrological change, it remains poorly understood how the carbon cycle evolves with hydrology-d...

Aim An important research question in ecology is how climate and the biodiversity of aboveground plants and belowground microbiomes affect ecosystem functions such as nutrient pools. However, little is studied on the concurrent role of above- and belowground species composition in shaping the spatial distribution patterns of ecosystem functions acr...

Microbial necromass carbon (MNC) is key to soil organic carbon (SOC) storage. However, mechanisms regulating MNC accumulation on large scales are poorly understood. Here we provide the first batch of regional-scale MNC data based on amino sugars for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau alpine grasslands. We show that Qinghai-Tibet grasslands have similar micr...

Wetlands are predicted to experience lowered water tables due to permafrost degradation in the Tibetan Plateau. These changes may affect carbon cycle processes such as soil respiration (Rs). However, the magnitude, patterns and controls of Rs remain poorly understood in alpine wetlands with their distinct hydrological regimes. Here, we conducted a...

Aims Owing to different soil environments and organic carbon sources, soil organic carbon (SOC) composition and preservation mechanisms may vary substantially in deep versus surface soils. This study examines vertical variation of various SOC components (including lignin phenols, cutin, suberin and microbial lipids) across the Chinese-Mongolian gra...

Aims As a major plant-derived soil organic carbon (SOC) component, lignin-derived phenolic compounds show varying biogeochemical characteristics compared to plant-derived lipid moieties. Comparing their distribution patterns can provide information on mechanisms governing SOC preservation and dynamics. However, the large-scale distribution pattern...

The relative contribution of roots versus shoots to soil organic carbon (SOC) is a long-debated topic related to soil carbon formation and dynamics. However, the variation of root- and shoot-derived carbon in natural soils remains poorly constrained due to limited tools to separate them. Here we overcome the difficulty by analyzing biomarkers for r...

Soil bacteria are key to ecosystem function and maintenance of soil fertility. Leveraging associations of current geographic distributions of bacteria with historic climate, we predict that soil bacterial diversity will increase across the majority (∼75%) of the Tibetan Plateau and northern North America if bacterial communities equilibrate with ex...

The distributions of many species show climate-driven shifts towards higher elevations, but evidence for elevational shifts is scarce for the alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The upward shift of alpine grassland distribution from 2000 to 2014 was assessed with field measurements and satellite remote sensing data obtained across six...

Soil bacteria are key to ecosystem function and maintenance of soil fertility. Leveraging associations of current geographic distributions of bacteria with historic climate, we predict that soil bacterial diversity will increase across the majority (~75%) of the Tibetan Plateau and northern North America if bacterial communities equilibrate with ex...

Chinese grasslands hold a third of the national soil organic carbon (OC) stocks but remain poorly investigated in terms of soil molecular components and their distribution patterns. Such information is important for understanding mechanisms governing grassland soil OC dynamics and its response to global changes. Here, employing solvent-extractable...

The vast expanses of rangeland on the Tibetan Plateau, which support the livelihood of c . 9.8 million local inhabitants, have experienced rapid climate warming over the past 50 years. At the same time, precipitation has increased in large parts of the Plateau but decreased in other parts, particularly in the northwest. These trends are predicted t...

Picea crassifolia and P. wilsonii, commonly used for afforestation in northern China, are increasingly likely to be subjected to high temperatures and soil drought stress as a result of global warming. However, little is known about the effects of these stresses on foliar photosynthesis in the two species. To investigate how photosynthetic characte...

After decades of research, we are starting to understand more about why the number of species varies from place to place on the planet. However, little is known about spatial variation in abundance, especially for soil-dwelling organisms. In this study, we aimed to disentangle the relative influences of climatic factors, soil properties, and plant...

Previous studies have revealed inconsistent correlations between fungal diversity and plant diversity from local to global scales, and there is a lack of information about the diversity–diversity and productivity–diversity relationships for fungi in alpine regions. � Here we investigated the internal relationships between soil fungal diversity, pla...

Rapid climate change and intensified human activities have resulted in water table lowering (WTL) and enhanced nitrogen (N) deposition in Tibetan alpine wetlands. These changes may alter the magnitude and direction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, affecting the climate impact of these fragile ecosystems. We conducted a mesocosm experiment combine...

Scientific Reports 6 : Article number: 34786 10.1038/srep34786 ; published online: 10 October 2016 ; updated: 12 January 2017 In this Article, Figure 2 is duplicated as Figure 4. The correct Figure 4 appears below as Figure 1 .

Abstract The biogeographical distribution of soil bacterial communities has been widely investigated. However, there has been little study of the biogeography of soil archaeal communities on a regional scale. Here, using high-throughput sequencing, we characterized the archaeal communities of 94 soil samples across the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Thau...

High soil organic carbon content, extensive root biomass, and low nutrient availability make alpine grasslands an important ecosystem for assessing the influence of nutrient enrichment on soil respiration (SR). We conducted a four-year (2009–2012) field experiment in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to examine the individual and c...

The effects of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) addition on litter decomposition are poorly understood in Tibetan alpine meadows. Leaf litter was collected from plots within a factorial N × P addition experiment and allowed to decompose over 708 days in an unfertilized plot to determine the effects of N and/or P addition on litter decomposition. Res...

Aims Nitrogen (N)-fixing legumes, despite being highly phosphorus (P)-demanding, constitute an important plant functional group and play key roles in N-poor ecosystems such as alpine grasslands. However, legume performance, including biomass, abundance, and species richness, is expected to change, because anthropogenic activities have drastically i...

As an important biomarker, fatty acids (FAs) have been extensively used to trace the origin of organic matter in sediments and soils. However, studies of the distribution and abundance of FAs in alpine grassland soils are still rare, especially on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), the highest plateau in the world, which contributes sediments to ma...

Plant biodiversity is often correlated with ecosystem functioning in terrestrial ecosystems. However, we know little about the relative and combined effects of above- and belowground biodiversity on multiple ecosystem functions (e.g., ecosystem multifunctionality, EMF) or how climate might mediate those relationships. Here, we tease apart the effec...

The vast wetlands on the Tibetan Plateau are expected to be an important natural source of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. The magnitude, patterns and environmental controls of CH4 emissions on different timescales, especially during non-growing season, remain poorly understood, because of technical limitations and the harsh environments. We condu...

The methylation index of branched tetraethers (MBT) and cyclization ratio of branched tetraethers (CBT) based on the distribution of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGT) are useful proxies for the reconstruction of mean annual air temperature (MAT) and soil pH. Recently, a series of 6-methyl brGDGTs were identified which were pre...

As CO2 concentrations continue to rise and drive global climate change, much effort has been put into estimating soil carbon (C) stocks and dynamics over time. However, the inconsistent methods employed by researchers hamper the comparability of such works, creating a pressing need to standardize the methods for soil organic C (SOC) quantification...

The methylation index of branched tetraethers (MBT) and cyclization ratio of branched tetraethers (CBT) based on the distribution of bacteria-derived branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (bGDGTs) are useful proxies for the reconstruction of continental paleotemperature and soil pH. Several calibrations of the MBT-CBT index have been propo...

Physiological and ecological adaptations of altitudinal gradients reveal alpine plants' ecological and evolutionary responses to environmental changes. Here we quantitatively investigated the variation in the foliar physiological and morphological traits of alpine tree species (Abies fargesii) along the altitudinal gradient in the Taibai Mountains,...

Due to the role leaf phenolics in defending against ultraviolet B (UVB) under previously controlled conditions, we hypothesize that ultraviolet radiation (UVR) could be a primary factor driving the variation in leaf phenolics in plants over a large geographic scale. We measured leaf total phenolics, ultraviolet-absorbing compounds (UVAC), and corre...

The diploid hybrid tree species Pinus densata inhabits high-altitude regions, usually at higher altitudes than its parental species, P. tabulaeformis and P. yunnanensis. Its success in alpine habitat has been hypothetically attributed to enhanced cold tolerance. We tested this hypothesis by subjecting all three species to cold stress for 33 days (1...

The molecular basis of many physiological and/or phenotypic adaptations of alpine plants remains largely unknown. The upper leaves of what are termed "glasshouse plants" have been transformed into translucent bracts that cover their inflorescences. This change in appearance is believed to allow such plants to maintain normal sexual reproduction und...

The homoploid hybrid species Pinus densata is restricted to alpine habitats that exceed the altitude range of its two parental species, Pinus tabulaeformis and Pinus yunnanensis. Alpine habitats usually generate cold-induced water stress in plants. To understand the ecological differentiation between these three species, we examined their physiolog...

Most homoploid hybrid species have different maternal donors and these maternal genotypes usually have biased distributions. It has been postulated that the geographical distributions of these genotypes may be due to random genetic drift and founder effects following range expansion after the initial recombination(s) that led to their speciation. H...

Most homoploid hybrid species have different maternal donors and these maternal genotypes usually have biased distributions. It has been postulated that the geographical distributions of these genotypes may be due to random genetic drift and founder effects following range expansion after the initial recombination(s) that led to their speciation. H...

Polyploidization plays an important role in generating the current high diversity of plants. Studies of distributional patterns of diploids and derivative autopolyploids have provided important insights into evolutionary processes and cryptic speciation of polyploidization within species defined on the basis of their morphology. However, few studie...

Xiaolong Mountain woodland, located in the west of the Qinling Mountains and the southeast of Gansu Province, provides an important role as "blue barrier" for the Loess Plateau. This area is also a crucial forest ecosystem that conserves water sources to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Changjiang River and guarantees ecolog...