An Assessment Framework for Grassland Ecosystem Health with Consideration of Natural Succession: A Case Study in Bayinxile, China

Abstract

Grassland health assessment is the basis for formulating grassland protection policy. However, there are few assessment methods that consider the angle of natural succession for northern China’s regional native grassland with excessive human activities. The main purpose of this study is to build an assessment system for these areas from the perspective of natural succession. Besides, the minimal cumulative resistance (MCR) model was used to extract potential ecological information from the study area as a supplementary reference for the assessment results. The result for Bayinxile pasture, a typical semiarid steppe with excessive human activities located in northern China, showed that: (1) The ecological function of eastern hilly area was better than that of other regions and the western area was lowest as a whole. (2) The river was the most important ecological network in the whole grassland in that it was of vital significance in the prevention of retrogressive succession and in the linking of ecological communities. (3) The density of ecological network was closely related to the intensity of human activities, and farmland and roads had great negative influence on the connection of the grassland ecological network. We further proposed an ecological control zone and made suggestions for Bayinxile ecological management to prevent grassland degradation based on the above results. This study should provide a new perspective for grassland health assessment and sustainable development of regional grassland.

Competing Vegetation Structure Indices for Estimating Spatial Constrains in Carabid Abundance Patterns in Chinese Grasslands Reveal Complex Scale and Habitat Patterns

“…In China, grasslands represent the most widespread ecosystems, accounting for more than 40% of the national land [13], and carabids constitute one of the most abundant beetles in these ecosystems [14,15]. However, Chinese grasslands are under strong anthropogenic pressures due to the effects of climate change and intensive land use [16][17][18][19]. As a result, Chinese grasslands are subject to increasing desertification processes that are profoundly changing land-cover characteristics [20][21][22] with negative impacts on species communities.…”

Ecosystem Health Assessment of World Natural Heritage Sites Based on Remote Sensing and Field Sampling Verification: Bayanbulak as Case Study

“…In other words, it considers the services provided by the ecosystem, that is, the direct and indirect ecological functions served by it for humans [23]. Research on the health of ecosystems also involves different scales, which can include the global scale, regional scales with administrative units, and scales specific to the ecosystem in question [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. At present, most studies on EHA are performed on the large-to-medium regional scale, allowing one to understand the trends in ecosystem health.…”

Biennial Mowing Maintains the Biomass and Functional Diversity of Semi-Arid Grassland

“…The mean annual average temperature is 0.4°C, with the highest monthly temperature in July (20.6°C) and the lowest mean monthly temperature in January (−21.7°C). The local elevation is 1150 m [13]. The semi-arid continental climate is characterized by mean annual precipitation ranging from 104 to 411 mm.…”

“…Based on our results, we recommend that the semi-arid grassland be mowed every other year in order to optimize sustainable production.Sustainability 2020, 12, 1507 2 of 11 preparing winter feed for livestock production in the semi-arid regions in northern China, Mongolia, and east Russia [12]. The Typical Steppe is the most widely distributed type of native grassland suitable for mowing in the pastoral regions in Inner Mongolia [13]. Rotational mowing dates and frequencies [14] have a small effect on the reproduction of grassland community plants and can avoid the excessive use of grassland resources [15].…”