Impact of great gerbils（Rhombomys opimus） on desert plant communities

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, Xinjian...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in干旱区科学：英文版 no. 6; pp. 852 - 859
Main Author XU Wenxuan LIU Wei YANG Weikang WANG Muyang XU Feng David BLANK
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 2015
Subjects
一年生植物
准噶尔盆地
地上生物量
多年生植物
沙鼠
物种丰富度
草本植物
荒漠植物群落
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Summary: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.
Bibliography:65-1278/K
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.
Rhombomys opimus ecosystem engineer species richness mutually beneficial relationship
ISSN:1674-6767