Impact of great gerbils (Rhombomys opimus) on desert plant communities
XU Wenxuan1, LIU Wei2, YANG Weikang1, WANG Muyang1, XU Feng1, David BLANK1
1 Key laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresources in Arid Lands, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China; 2 College of Life Science and Technology, Southwest University for Nationalities, Chengdu 610043, China
Impact of great gerbils (Rhombomys opimus) on desert plant communities
XU Wenxuan1, LIU Wei2, YANG Weikang1, WANG Muyang1, XU Feng1, David BLANK1
1 Key laboratory of Biogeography and Bioresources in Arid Lands, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China; 2 College of Life Science and Technology, Southwest University for Nationalities, Chengdu 610043, China
摘要 Great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) colonies, with bare soil and herbaceous plants, are conspicuous to the background environment throughout their range area. In order to quantify the engineer role of great gerbils, we investigated the plant communities of 20 active colonies in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China. In areas without disturbance, desert plant communities were dominated by the shrubs with low level species richness. In burrow areas and surrounding intermediate areas, which were disturbed by great gerbils, the shrubs were suppressed with the decrease of vegetation cover and aboveground biomass. As a result, “niche gaps” were created in disturbed areas and worked as a refuge for herbaceous annuals and perennials. So the existence of great gerbils increased the overall species richness of the desert. Furthermore, herbaceous annuals and perennials are the major food source for great gerbils in spring, indicating that great gerbils have a mutually beneficial relationship with herbaceous plants.
Abstract: Great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) colonies, with bare soil and herbaceous plants, are conspicuous to the background environment throughout their range area. In order to quantify the engineer role of great gerbils, we investigated the plant communities of 20 active colonies in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China. In areas without disturbance, desert plant communities were dominated by the shrubs with low level species richness. In burrow areas and surrounding intermediate areas, which were disturbed by great gerbils, the shrubs were suppressed with the decrease of vegetation cover and aboveground biomass. As a result, “niche gaps” were created in disturbed areas and worked as a refuge for herbaceous annuals and perennials. So the existence of great gerbils increased the overall species richness of the desert. Furthermore, herbaceous annuals and perennials are the major food source for great gerbils in spring, indicating that great gerbils have a mutually beneficial relationship with herbaceous plants.
The National Basic Research Program of China (2014CB954204), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30970476) and the Western Light Program of the Chinese Academy of Sci-ences (XBBS201309)
通讯作者:
YANG Weikang
E-mail: yangwk@ms.xjb.ac.cn
引用本文:
XU Wenxuan, LIU Wei, YANG Weikang, WANG Muyang, XU Feng, David BLANK. Impact of great gerbils (Rhombomys opimus) on desert plant communities[J]. 干旱区科学, 2015, 7(6): 852-859.
XU Wenxuan, LIU Wei, YANG Weikang, WANG Muyang, XU Feng, David BLANK. Impact of great gerbils (Rhombomys opimus) on desert plant communities. Journal of Arid Land, 2015, 7(6): 852-859.
Báez S, Collins S L, Pockman W T, et al. 2013. Effects of exper-imental rainfall manipulations on Chihuahuan Desert grass-land and shrubland plant communities. Oecologia, 172(4): 1117–1127. Boekon B, Lipchin C, Gutterman Y, et al. 1998. Annual plant community responses to density of small-scale soil disturb-ances in the Negev Desert of Israel. Oecologia, 114(1): 106–117. Denslow J S. 1985. Disturbance-mediated coexistence of species. In: Pickett S T A, White P S. The Ecology of Natural Disturb-ance and Patch Dynamics. New York: Academic Press, 307–323. Desmet P G, Cowling R M. 1999. Patch creation by fossorial rodents: a key process in the revegetation of phytotoxic arid soils. Journal of Arid Environments, 43(1): 35–45. Gálvez-Bravo L, López-Pintor A, Rebollo S, et al. 2011. European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) engineering effects promote plant heterogeneity in Mediterranean dehesa pastures. Journal of Arid Environments, 75(9): 779–786. Gómez-García D, Azorín J, Giannoni S M, et al. 2004. How does Merendera Montana (L.) Lange (Liliaceae) benefit from being consumed by mole-voles? Plant Ecology, 172(2): 173–181. Grime J P. 1977. Evidence for the existence of three primary strategies in plants and its relevance to ecological and evolu-tionary theory. The American Naturalist, 111(982): 1169–1194. Grubb P J. 1977. The maintenance of species richness in plant communities: the importance of the regeneration niche. Bio-logical Reviews, 52(1): 107–145. Guo Q F. 1996. Effects of bannertail kangaroo rat mounds on small-scale plant community structure. Oecologia, 106(2): 247–256. Huntly N, Inouye R. 1988. Pocket gophers in ecosystems: pat-terns and mechanisms. BioScience, 38(11): 786–793. Huston M, Smith T. 1987. Plant succession: life history and competition. The American Naturalist, 130(2): 168–198. Iakovlev M G. 1969. Some results of numbers counting of great gerbil on constant plots during many years. Report 1. Settle-ments density of gerbils. In: Iakovlev M G. Material of Scien-tific Conference for Institutions of Black Death Research in Middle Asia and Kazakhstan. Alma-Ata: Academic Press, 169–175. James A I, Eldridge D J, Hill B M. 2009. Foraging animals create fertile patches in an Australian desert shrubland. Ecography, 32(5): 723–732. Jiang H P, Wu N, Yang W K. 2007. Effects of Rhombomys opi-mus on microbial quantity, soil moisture, content and soil nu-trient content in a desert. Arid Zone Research, 24(2): 187–192. (in Chinese)Jones C G, Lawton J H, Shachak M. 1994. Organisms as ecosys-tem engineers. Oikos, 69(3): 373–386. Liu W, Xu W X, Yang W K, et al. 2012. Food habits of the great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) in the Southern Gurbantunggut Desert, Xinjiang, China. Pakistan Journal of Zoology, 44(4): 931–936. Martinsen G D, Cushman J H, Whitham T G. 1990. Impact of pocket gopher disturbance on plant species diversity in a shortgrass prairie community. Oecologia, 83(1): 132–138. McIntire E J B, Hik D S. 2005. Influences of chronic and current season grazing by collared pikas on above-ground biomass and species richness in subarctic alpine meadows. Oecologia, 145(2): 288–296.Mokrousov N Y. 1978. The great gerbil-Rhombomys opimus Lichtenstein, 1823. In: Sludsky A A. Mammals of Kazakhstan, vol. 3. Alma-Alta: Nauka Press, 64–115. Mulder C P, Keall S N. 2001. Burrowing seabirds and reptiles: impacts on seeds, seedlings and soils in an island forest in New Zealand. Oecologia, 127(3): 350–360. Mun H T, Whitford W G. 1990. Factors affecting annual plants assemblages on banner-tailed kangaroo rat mounds. Journal of Arid Environments, 18(2): 165–173. Platt W J. 1975. The colonization and formation of equilibrium plant species associations on badger disturbances in a tall-grass prairie. Ecological Monographs, 45(3): 285–305. Reichman O J, Smith S C. 1985. Impact of pocket gopher burrows on overlying vegetation. Journal of Mammalogy, 66(4): 720–725. Reichman O J, Seabloom E W. 2002. The role of pocket gophers as subterranean ecosystem engineers. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 17(1): 44–49. Schlesinger W H, Reynolds J F, Cunningham G L, et al. 1990. Biological feedbacks in global desertification. Science, 247(4946): 1043–1048. Smith A T, Foggin J M. 1999. The plateau pika (Ochotona cur-zoniae) is a keystone species for biodiversity on the Tibetan Plateau. Animal Conservation, 2(4): 235–240. Stromberg M R, Griffin J R. 1996. Long-term patterns in coastal California grasslands in relation to cultivation, gophers, and grazing. Ecological Applications, 6(4): 1189–1211. Taoboer, ZHAO T B, Qinggele, et al. 2008. Rat disaster in Tenggenaoer shrubs, Damao, Inner Mongolia. Journal of Inner Mongolia Forestry Science & Technology, 34(4): 42–44. (in Chinese)van Nimwegen R E, Kretzer J, Cully J F, Jr. 2008. Ecosystem engineering by a colonial mammal: how prairie dogs structure rodent communities. Ecology, 89(12): 3298–3305. Wang S B, Sun Y Z, Zhao X C. 1998. The method for investigating population density of great gerbil Rhombomys opimus Licht. in the Zhungar desert. Endemic Diseases Bulletin, 13(1): 81–83. (in Chinese)Wang S, Yang G. 1983. Rodent Fauna of Xinjiang. Urumqi: Xin-jiang People’s Publishing House, 136–142. (in Chinese)Wang X Q, Wang T, Jiang J, et al. 2005. On the sand surface sta-bility in the southern part of Gurbantünggüt Desert. Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences, 48(6): 778–785. Willot S J, Miller A J, Incoll L D, et al. 2000. The contribution of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus L.) to soil fertility in semi-arid Spain. Biology and Fertility of Soils, 31(5): 379–384. Wilschut L I, Addink E A, Heesterbeek J A P, et al. 2013. Mapping the distribution of the main host for plague in a complex landscape in Kazakhstan: An object-based approach using SPOT-5 XS, Landsat 7 ETM+, SRTM and multiple Random Forests. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 23: 81–94. Xu F, Liu W, Qiao H H, et al. 2013. Relationships between vigi-lance, foraging and other behaviors of the great gerbil Rhom-bomys opimus. Arid Land Geography, 36(1): 118–124. (in Chinese)Xu W X, Liu W, Yang W K, et al. 2012. Rhombomys opimus con-tribution to the “fertile island” effect of tamarisk mounds in Junggar Basin. Ecological Research, 27(6): 775–781. Yang W K, Qiao J F, Jiang H P, et al. 2006. Impact of burrows of the great gerbil on small-scale plant community in Junggar Desert, China. Arid Land Geography, 29(2): 219–224. (in Chinese)Yang W K, Jiang H P, Wang X Q, et al. 2009. Disturbance effects of Rhombomys opimus on desert plant community in Gurban-tonggut Desert. Chinese Journal of Ecology, 28(10): 2020–2025. (in Chinese)Zhang L Y, Chen C D. 2002. On the general characteristics of plant diversity of Gurbantunggut sandy desert. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 22(11): 1923–1932. (in Chinese)Zhang Y M, Zhang Z B, Liu J K. 2003. Burrowing rodents as ecosystem engineers: the ecology and management of plateau zokors Myospalax fontanierii in alpine meadow ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau. Mammal Review, 33(3–4): 284–294. Zhang Y M, Wang H L, Wang X Q, et al. 2006. The microstructure of microbiotic crust and its influence on wind erosion for a sandy soil surface in the Gurbantunggut Desert of Northwest-ern China. Geoderma, 132(3–4): 441–449.
2015, Vol. 7 
