title: Precipitation gradient determines the tradeoff between soil moisture and soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and species richness in the Loess Plateau, China.
abstract: A tight coupling exists between biogeochemical cycles and water availability in drylands. However, studies regarding the coupling among soil moisture (SM), soil carbon/nitrogen, and plants are rare in the literature, and clarifying these relationships changing with climate gradient is challenging. Thus, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and species richness (SR) were selected as soil-plant system variables, and the tradeoff relationships between SM and these variables and their variations along the precipitation gradient were quantified in the Loess Plateau, China. Results showed these variables increased linearly along the precipitation gradient in the woodland, shrubland, and grassland, respectively, except for the SR in the woodland and grassland, and SOC in the grassland (p>0.05). Correlation analysis showed that the SM-SOC and SM-TN tradeoffs were significantly correlated with mean annual precipitation (MAP) across the three vegetation types, and SM-SR tradeoff was significantly correlated with MAP in grassland and woodland. The linear piece-wise quantile regression was applied to determine the inflection points of these tradeoffs responses to the precipitation gradient. The inflection point for the SM-SOC tradeoff was detected at MAP=570mm; no inflection point was detected for SM-TN tradeoff; SM-SR tradeoff variation trends were different in the woodland and grassland, and the inflection points were detected at MAP=380mm and MAP=570mm, respectively. Before the turning point, constraint exerted by soil moisture on SOC and SR existed in the relatively arid regions, while the constraint disappears or is lessened in the relatively humid regions in this study. The results demonstrate the tradeoff revealed obvious trends along the precipitation gradient and were affected by vegetation type. Consequently, tradeoffs could be an ecological indicator and tool for restoration management in the Loess Plateau. In further study, the mechanism of how the tradeoff is affected by the precipitation gradient and vegetation type should be clarified.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China; Joint Center for Global Change Studies, Beijing 100875, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Cong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China; Joint Center for Global Change Studies, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China; Joint Center for Global Change Studies, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: bfu@rcees.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Bojie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Zongshan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tang
keywords: Loess Plateau; Precipitation gradient; Restoration management; Soil-plant system; Tradeoff analysis