Divergence of above- and belowground C and N pool within predominant plant species along two precipitation gradients in North China

Ye, X. H.; Pan, X.; Cornwell, W. K.; Gao, S. Q.; Dong, M.; Cornelissen, J. H. C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-457-2015

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-457-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-457-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 2

Research article

|

27 Jan 2015

Research article |

| 27 Jan 2015

Divergence of above- and belowground C and N pool within predominant plant species along two precipitation gradients in North China

X. H. Ye, X. Pan, W. K. Cornwell, S. Q. Gao, M. Dong, and J. H. C. Cornelissen

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Final revised paper (published on 27 Jan 2015)
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Preprint (discussion started on 02 Oct 2014)
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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SC C5891: 'Anonymous Referee', Jian Liu, 13 Oct 2014
SC C5941: 'a good case study', JIANFENG LIU, 17 Oct 2014
RC C5993: 'review', Anonymous Referee #1, 20 Oct 2014
RC C6260: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #3, 28 Oct 2014
AC C7373: 'reply to referees', Xuehua Ye, 15 Dec 2014

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Xuehua Ye on behalf of the Authors (15 Dec 2014) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (26 Dec 2014) by Florian Wittmann

AR by Xuehua Ye on behalf of the Authors (27 Dec 2014)

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Short summary

The coupling of carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle drives food web structure and biogeochemistry of an ecosystem. However, across precipitation gradients, we have found examples of consistent N pool sizes above- and belowground and a shift to a greater proportion of belowground N in drier sites. We suggest that precipitation gradients do potentially decouple the C and N pool, but the exact nature of the decoupling depends on the dominant species’ capacity for intraspecific variation.