About the Authors

Kechang Niu

kechangniu@nju.edu.cn

Affiliations Department of Biology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China, MOE Key Laboratory of Arid and Grassland Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

Bernhard Schmid

Affiliation Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, Zurich University, Zurich, Switzerland

Philippe Choler

Affiliation Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, UMR-CNRS 5553 and Station Alpine J. Fourier, CNRS -UMS 3370, Université de Grenoble, Grenoble, France

Guozhen Du

Affiliation MOE Key Laboratory of Arid and Grassland Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KN GD. Performed the experiments: KN GD. Analyzed the data: KN BS PC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KN GD. Wrote the paper: KN BS PC.