Effects Of Fertilization And Mowing On The Interspecific Interaction In Subalpine Meadow

Experiments were conducted to examine the potential role of fertilization and cutting on the interspecific interaction and plant community structure. Plant community responses of competitive effect (relative competitive ability) and competitive response to three levels of soil fertility (control, fertilization once, fertilization twice) and three levels of mowing (control, mowing once, mowing twice) and the whole treatments created from the possible combinations of fertility and mowing were evaluated. We used biomass, competitive effect and competitive response to evaluate their responses. There were eight replicates of each treatment.The results indicated that:1) The standing crop in community was strongly affected by fertilization, mowing and the interaction between them. The responses of biomass accumulation to different treatments varied among species.2) At succession stage, fertilization and mowing weakened the relative competitive ability of the dominant species in subalpine meadow, while increasing competitive ability of most species in the community. That is, fertilization and mowing changed the species competitive patterns and the interspecific interactions in the community. Mowing increased some species'above-ground biomass, thus reduced the difference between species productivity. By weakening the competitive inhibition of dominant species to other species, mowing reduced competitive effects of species, which have a higher above-ground productivity due to fertilization to these smaller species and lead to similar productivityThe above results showed that community-level biomass and the interspecific interaction in plant community was strongly affected by fertilization or mowing. The current composition and structure of plant community were primarily the result of different response of species to factors. With any change of ecological factors, there was some degree of change in plant community. Our experiment provided valuable evidences for the studies on change of plant community to ecological factors and provided a predictive tool for community structure and dynamics.