@Article{phyton.2018.87.236,
AUTHOR = {Shi G, ZY Liu, T Baoyin, J Sun, JJ Duan, XL Li, GF Yang},
TITLE = {Patterns of <i>Leymus chinensis</i> in response to grazing exclusion across two steppe habitats in Inner Mongolia: implications for phenotypic plasticity},
JOURNAL = {Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany},
VOLUME = {87},
YEAR = {2018},
NUMBER = {all},
PAGES = {236--241},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/phyton/v87nall/33959},
ISSN = {1851-5657},
ABSTRACT = {Plant functional traits and their effects on rangeland
ecosystem function have received much attention by ecologists.
However, the importance of functional traits and the interactive effects
of grazing exclusion and climate are poorly understood. This
study, therefore, aimed to analyse the response of <i>Leymus chinensis</i>
functional traits in long-term grazing exclusion in different habitats
(rainless typical steppe and rainy meadow steppe). This study showed
that although the sensitivity and variability of different traits were
similar in two steppe habitats, phenotypic plasticity of <i>L. chinensis</i>
in meadow steppe was significantly higher than typical steppes.
With the increased degree of plasticity, the variability significantly
increased and could be fitted by an equation of exponential rise to
maximum, and this relationship was unaltered by climate. Additionally,
we illustrated that different climate conditions do not alter the
patterns of phenotypic plasticity of <i>L. chinensis</i> affected by grazing
exclusion.},
DOI = {10.32604/phyton.2018.87.236}
}