About the Authors

Qing Zhang

Affiliations School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China, Sino-US Center for Conservation, Energy and Sustainability Science, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China

Xiangyang Hou

Affiliation Grassland Research Institute of Chinese Academic of Agricultural Science, Hohhot, China

Frank Yonghong Li

Affiliation AgResearch Grasslands Research Centre, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Jianming Niu

jmniu2005@163.com

Affiliations School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China, Sino-US Center for Conservation, Energy and Sustainability Science, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China

Yanlin Zhou

Affiliation School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China

Yong Ding

Affiliation Grassland Research Institute of Chinese Academic of Agricultural Science, Hohhot, China

Liqing Zhao

Affiliation School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China

Xin Li

Affiliation Sino-US Center for Conservation, Energy and Sustainability Science, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China

Wenjing Ma

Affiliation School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China

Sarula Kang

Affiliation School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: QZ JN XH. Performed the experiments: QZ JN YZ LZ YD WM SK. Analyzed the data: QZ FL JN. Wrote the paper: QZ FL XL.