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Aim

To investigate large-scale patterns of above-ground and below-ground biomass partitioning in grassland ecosystems and to test the isometric theory at the community level.

Location

Northern China, in diverse grassland types spanning temperate grasslands in arid and semi-arid regions to alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau.

Methods

We investigated above-ground and below-ground biomass in China’s grasslands by conducting five consecutive sampling campaigns across the northern part of the country during 2001-05. We then documented the root : shoot ratio (R/S) and its relationship with climatic factors for China’s grasslands. We further explored relationships between above-ground and below-ground biomass across different grassland types.

Results

Our results indicated that the overall R/S of China’s grasslands was larger than the global average (6.3 vs. 3.7). The R/S for China’s grasslands did not show any significant trend with either mean annual temperature or mean annual precipitation. Above-ground biomass was nearly proportional to below-ground biomass with a scaling exponent (the slope of log-log linear relationship between above-ground and below-ground biomass) of 1.02 across various grassland types. The slope did not differ significantly between temperate and alpine grasslands or between steppe and meadow.

Main conclusions

Our findings support the isometric theory of above-ground and below-ground biomass partitioning, and suggest that above-ground biomass scales isometrically with below-ground biomass at the community level.