Vertical patterns and controls of soil nutrients in alpine grassland: Implications for nutrient uptake

- Soil nutrients in alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau were examined.
- Alpine swamp meadow has lower cation stocks than those in steppe and meadow.
- Plant cycling and soil moisture control vertical distributions of soil nutrients.

Vertical patterns and determinants of soil nutrients are critical to understand nutrient cycling in high-altitude ecosystems; however, they remain poorly understood in the alpine grassland due to lack of systematic field observations. In this study, we examined vertical distributions of soil nutrients and their influencing factors within the upper 1 m of soil, using data of 68 soil profiles surveyed in the alpine grassland of the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) stocks decreased with depth in both alpine meadow (AM) and alpine steppe (AS), but remain constant along the soil profile in alpine swamp meadow (ASM). Total phosphorus, Ca2 +, and Mg2 + stocks slightly increased with depth in ASM. K+ stock decreased with depth, while Na+ stock increased slightly with depth among different vegetation types; however, SO42 − and Cl− stocks remained relatively uniform throughout different depth intervals in the alpine grassland. Except for SOC and TN, soil nutrient stocks in the top 20 cm soils were significantly lower in ASM compared to those in AM and AS. Correlation analyses showed that SOC and TN stocks in the alpine grassland positively correlated with vegetation coverage, soil moisture, clay content, and silt content, while they negatively related to sand content and soil pH. However, base cation stocks revealed contrary relationships with those environmental variables compared to SOC and TN stocks. These correlations varied between vegetation types. In addition, no significant relationship was detected between topographic factors and soil nutrients. Our findings suggest that plant cycling and soil moisture primarily control vertical distributions of soil nutrients (e.g. K) in the alpine grassland and highlight that vegetation types in high-altitude permafrost regions significantly affect soil nutrients.

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