Response of plant production to growing/non-growing season asymmetric warming in an alpine meadow of the Northern Tibetan Plateau

A field growing/non-growing season asymmetric warming experiment (C: control, i.e., no warming in the entire year; GLNG: growing season warming lower than non-growing season warming; GHNG: growing season warming higher than non-growing season warming) was conducted in an alpine meadow of the Northern Tibetan Plateau in early June 2015. The effects of growing/non-growing season asymmetric warming on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), aboveground biomass (AGB) and gross primary production (GPP) in 2015–2017 were examined. The ‘GLNG’ and ‘GHNG’ treatments significantly increased the annual mean air temperature (Tₐ) by 2.95 °C and 2.76 °C, and the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) by 0.23 kPa and 0.28 kPa but significantly reduced the annual mean soil moisture (SM) by 0.02 m³ m⁻³ and 0.02 m³ m⁻³ respectively; however, changes in the annual mean Tₐ, VPD and SM were the same between the ‘GLNG’ and ‘GHNG’ treatments over the three years in 2015–2017. There were no significant differences in the SAVI and GPP among the ‘C', ‘GLNG’ and ‘GHNG’ treatments over the three growing seasons in 2015–2017. The ‘GLNG’ and ‘GHNG’ treatments did not significantly affect the NDVI and AGB compared to ‘C’, whereas the NDVI and AGB under the ‘GLNG’ treatment were significantly greater than those under the ‘GHNG’ treatment over the three growing seasons in 2015–2017. The significant differences in NDVI and AGB between the ‘GLNG’ and ‘GHNG’ treatments may be attributed to the different effects under the ‘GLNG’ and ‘GHNG’ treatments on the non-growing season Tₐ, growing season water availability and soil nitrogen availability. Therefore, the non-growing season with a higher warming magnitude may have stronger effects on the aboveground plant production than did the growing season with a higher warming magnitude in the alpine meadow of the Northern Tibetan Plateau.