关键词: 地下鼠, 生物学特征, 生态系统, 生物地球化学循环, 植物化学防卫

Abstract: The modifications of ecosystem structure, function and hemical defense of plant dealing with the underground grazing of subterranean rodents were focused in this paper. Their biological characteristics in different areas were reviewed. The relationships among subterranean rodents, soil, vegetation, and other mammals were discussed and the potential strategies of plant defense and feedback to global change were explored. Subterranean rodents would cause dramatic changes in ecosystem structures and functions because of their articularityin life style, behavior and population structure in nature. With the physical environments of soil being intensively altered by their underground excavating in spacial and temporal scales, the type, development, nutrition availability and microgeography. The underground grazing directly caused many character changes of plants in morphology and life history, leading to the obvious differences such as population abundance, interspecific competition, vegetation , species diversity, biomass and community structure. The strategies of plant defense in community had distinct chemical defense properties. Subterranean rodents were closely connected with other herbivorous mammals in interspecific competition , especially in spatial availability. They were important food resources for other carnivores in food web. In short, the effects of subterranean rodents on the biochemistry process, which contained ecosystem productivity, spatial heterogeneity, nutrition structure and cycling, carbon deposition and trace gas releasing were so intensive that were essential and unsubstitutable in nature.

Key words: Subterranean rodents, Biological characteristics, Ecosystem, Biogeochemical cycling, Chemical defense of plant