Temporal stability of plant community productivity and their driving factors in alpine Potentilla fruticosa shrub meadow in Haibei, Qinghai Province

It is of great significance to determine the dynamic changes and driving factors of the temporal stability of the community productivity in the Potentilla fruticosa shrub meadow for the maintenance and adaptive management of the ecosystem. In this study, the plant community of P. fruticosa shrub meadow from the southern foot of the Qilian Mountains in Haibei of Qinghai Province was taken as the research object. The seasonal and interannual dynamic changes of plant community productivity in alpine shrub meadow from 2020 to 2023 were analyzed, and the effects of species diversity and soil factors on the stability of plant community were discussed. The results showed that: 1) On the seasonal scale, the aboveground productivity of the plant community showed an “unimodal” curve and reached its peak at the end of July. The aboveground productivity and below-ground productivity of plant communities were significantly different at the interannual scale (P < 0.05). 2) There was no significant difference between the temporal stability of aboveground plant community productivity and the temporal stability of below-ground community productivity (P > 0.05). The temporal stability of forbs was significantly higher than that of other functional groups (P < 0.05). 3) There were significant positive correlations between the temporal stability of the sedge functional groups, Shannon-Wiener index, Simpson index, and soil available potassium and the temporal stability of aboveground productivity of P. fruticosa shrub meadow (P < 0.05). There were significant positive correlations between surface (0–10 cm) soil available phosphorus and pH value and the stability of underground productivity of plants in the P. fruticosa meadow (P < 0.05). In conclusion, different functional groups of plants, species diversity and available soil nutrients are the key factors affecting the stability of plant productivity in the P. fruticosa shrub meadow.