Abstract: Alpine plant species are very sensitive to the climate change in their growth and reproductive characteristics,but few studies are made on it. In this paper,a reciprocal transplanted experiment was conducted along an altitude gradient from 3200 m to 3800 m at the south slope of Qilian Mountains in the northeast of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau,aimed to understand the responses of typical alpine plant species growth and reproductive characteristics to simulated climate change. With the increase of the altitude,the mean annual air temperature decreased at a rate of 0.51 ℃/100 m,and the plant height,base leaf number,and maximum (minimum) leaf area had the peak values at 3400 m but lowered at other three altitudes. The responses of reproductive strategies such as reproductive branch number,flower number,and reproductive input were not obvious,but had a decreasing trend with increasing altitude. The results confirmed the hypothesis that climate change had more obvious effects on plant growth than on its reproductive characteristics.

Key words: Fenneropenaeu chinensis, Temperature, Growth, Energy budget