About the Authors

Yuan M. Zhou

Contributed equally to this work with: Yuan M. Zhou, Juan J. Lu

Affiliation Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Soil and Plant Ecological Processes, College of Grassland and Environment Sciences, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urümqi, China

Juan J. Lu

Contributed equally to this work with: Yuan M. Zhou, Juan J. Lu

Affiliation Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Soil and Plant Ecological Processes, College of Grassland and Environment Sciences, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urümqi, China

Dun Y. Tan

tandunyan@163.com (DYT); ccbask0@uky.edu (CCB)

Affiliation Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Soil and Plant Ecological Processes, College of Grassland and Environment Sciences, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urümqi, China

Carol C. Baskin

tandunyan@163.com (DYT); ccbask0@uky.edu (CCB)

Affiliations Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Soil and Plant Ecological Processes, College of Grassland and Environment Sciences, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urümqi, China, Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Jerry M. Baskin

Affiliations Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Soil and Plant Ecological Processes, College of Grassland and Environment Sciences, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urümqi, China, Department of Biology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: YMZ JJL DYT. Performed the experiments: YMZ JJL DYT. Analyzed the data: JJL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: YMZ JJL DYT. Wrote the paper: YMZ JJL DYT CCB JMB.