Site-level differences in plant functional type parameters in the study area
| Parameter | Site | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desert steppe (DS) | Typical steppe (S) | Forest steppe (FS) | ||
| Vegetation coverage (%) | 4.5 ± 0.7c | 11.0 ± 1.8b | 33.1 ± 4.7a | |
| Biomass (g m−2) | 15.7 ± 1.1c | 34.2 ± 1.2b | 47.1 ± 1.4a | |
| (a) Palatability | ||||
| Coverage (%) | IP | 1.8 ± 0.5a | 1.9 ± 0.4a | 0.2 ± 0.06a |
| P | 2.6 ± 0.3c | 8.6 ± 1.3b | 28.6 ± 3.9a | |
| TT | 0.1 ± 0.04b | 0.4 ± 0.07b | 4.3 ± 0.8a | |
| RIV (%) | IP% | 40.2 ± 3.4a | 17.6 ± 3.3b | 0.6 ± 0.2b |
| P% | 57.6 ± 3.3b | 78.7 ± 3.0a | 86.3 ± 2.0a | |
| TT% | 2.2 ± 0.7b | 3.7 ± 0.5b | 13.1 ± 1.9a | |
| (b) Life form | ||||
| Coverage (%) | Annual | 0.5 ± 0.2a | 1.1 ± 0.3a | 0.3 ± 0.08a |
| Perennial | 4.0 ± 0.5b | 9.9 ± 1.5ab | 32.8 ± 4.8a | |
| RIV (%) | Annual | 11.4 ± 2.5a | 9.9 ± 2.0a | 1.1 ± 1.6a |
| Perennial | 88.6 ± 2.5a | 90.1 ± 2.0a | 98.9 ± 1.6a | |
Values are presented as mean ± standard deviation.
IP: impalatable; P: palatable; TT: trampling tolerant; RIV: relative importance value.
Different letters indicate the significance of the Tukey’s HSD test (