Effect of long‐term grazing on soil organic carbon content in semiarid steppes in Inner Mongolia

Cui, Xiaoyong; Wang, Yanfen; Niu, Haishan; Wu, Jing; Wang, Shiping; Schnug, Ewald; Rogasik, Jutta; Fleckenstein, Jürgen; Tang, Yanhong

doi:10.1007/s11284-005-0063-8

Cited by 122 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…In Bloemfontein, relatively high soil pH occurs under high grazing, compared with low grazing ( Table 2). In the Inner Mongolia region of China, a similar result was found by Cui et al (2005), who reported that soil pH decreased with a longterm (30 grazing, compared with continuous grazing. As to alkaline grasslands, Jeddi and Chaieb (2010) reported that a long-term (12 years) exclusion of livestock grazing increased species richness and decreased soil pH from moderate alkalinity to slight alkalinity in degraded arid steppe of Tunisia.…”

Section: Grazing and Soil Chemical Propertiessupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Animal trampling may have a major impact on soil structure and subsequently alter the soil water infiltration and availability to plants (Yates, 2000). Grazing is further associated with changes in soil pH and organic carbon, and soil nutrients such as N, P and K (Cui et al, 2005;Jeddi and Chaieb, 2010;Tefera et al, 2010;Yates, 2010). Accordingly, species composition and biomass production may be influenced through the direct effects of defoliation and trampling, and the indirect effects of nutrient enrichment and depletion (Snyman, 1998; Fernandez-Gimenez and Allen-Diaz, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of Grazing on Plant Diversityproductivity Relationship in Semi-Arid Grassland of South Africa

Dingaan¹,

Walker²,

Tsubo³

et al. 2016

Appl Ecol Env Res

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Abstract.The relationship between plant diversity and productivity has been hotly debated over the last two decades. What makes the relationship complex is, in part, the interplay of several biotic and abiotic effects, which include rainfall variability, soil characteristics and grazing. We investigated the influence of grazing intensity on the diversity-productivity relationship in a wide range of soil pH along a rainfall gradient in semi-arid grassland. Vegetation and soil surveys were conducted in high grazing (HG) and low grazing (LG) grasslands around Bethlehem (716 mm mean annual rainfall, moderately acidic soil), Bloemfontein (543 mm, slightly acidic/neutral soil) and Kimberley (467 mm, neutral/slightly alkaline soil) in South Africa. Plant species occurring in the study area were recorded, and aboveground biomass was estimated by clippings. Soils sampled were analysed for chemical properties. Species richness increased with increasing biomass and decreasing pH in Kimberley and Bloemfontein and subsequently declined with increasing biomass and decreasing pH in Bethlehem. The relationship between species richness and biomass was hump-shaped across the study area but when we differentiated between the degrees of grazing, we found linear positive relationships at both LG and HG sites. This suggests that the diversity-productivity relationship needs to be carefully examined in grazing land.

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Section: Grazing and Soil Chemical Propertiessupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Grazing on Plant Diversityproductivity Relationship in Semi-Arid Grassland of South Africa

Dingaan¹,

Walker²,

Tsubo³

et al. 2016

Appl Ecol Env Res

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“…As water was the major factor that limited plant growth in natural grasslands (St Clair et al, 2009), the increases in aboveground production were significantly greater in areas with the preferred amount of precipitation (>300 mm). Piñeiro et al (2009) concluded that the effects of grazing exclusion on root biomass were positive at mesic locations (400-850 mm of MAP) (Fuhlendorf et al, 2002;Kauffman et al, 2004;Xie and Wittig, 2004;Derner et al, 2006;Gao et al, 2011), but negative at humid and dry conditions (McNaughton et al, 1998;Frank et al, 2002;Pucheta et al, 2004;Reeder et al, 2004;Cui et al, 2005). Similarly, in our study, MAP ranged from 134 mm to 752 mm across all experimental sites.…”

Section: Factors Influencing the Effects Of Grazing Exclusion On Carbsupporting

confidence: 70%

Effects of grazing exclusion on carbon sequestration and plant diversity in grasslands of China—A meta-analysis

Xiong

Shi

Zhang

et al. 2016

Ecological Engineering

163

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a b s t r a c tWidespread land degradation has strengthened the urgent need to restore overgrazing grasslands. China has implemented the program 'Returning Grazing Land to Grassland' (RGLG) through grazing exclusion by fence since 2003. Despite a lot of field experiments, there is still controversy on the effects of grazing exclusion on rangeland restoration, highlighting the need for synthetic analysis. We conducted a metaanalysis of 447 entries from 78 papers to analyze the spatiotemporal effects of grazing exclusion on plant diversity, productivity and soil carbon sequestration in the major RGLG-implemented provinces of China. Our results showed that, compared with the grazed sites, grazing exclusion significantly increased carbon stored in aboveground biomass, litter mass, belowground biomass and soils by 84.7%, 111.6%, 25.5% and 14.4%, respectively. Plant coverage, soil available nitrogen, soil available phosphorus and soil microbial biomass carbon increased by 52.0%, 21.7% 22.8% and 26.3%, respectively. However, grazing exclusion had little effects on recovering plant diversity in China's grasslands. Of the factors examined, climatic factors strongly modified the effects of grazing exclusion on ecosystem carbon stocks, for example, precipitation significantly amplified the positive effects. Grazing exclusion played a positive role in soil carbon sequestration in most grassland types except in temperate desert-steppe. But annual soil carbon sequestration rates decayed rapidly over time in both alpine meadow and temperate steppe. Short-term (≤5 years) grazing exclusion remarkably increased species richness, but not significantly in the long run. The threshold from neutral to negative effects of grazing exclusion on species evenness occurs after approximately ten years. Our findings provide evidence that grazing exclusion is an effective way to restore vegetation and sequestrate carbon in degraded grasslands, but not beneficial to plant diversity maintenance. The benefits of grazing exclusion are more effective in humid area than arid area. We suggest that grazing exclusion should be ceased after about six to ten years. Additionally, grazing exclusion should integrate with other appropriate management practices instead of operating on a stand-alone basis.

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“…However, the reduction in TC and TN concentrations with the grazing intensity in our study could also be ascribed to the following reasons. First, the soil organic matter (SOM) is determined by main inputs from decomposition of aboveground and belowground vegetation litter and animal excreta and main outputs though the mineralization and leaching of carbon and nitrogen (Golluscio et al 2009;Cui et al 2005). Second, grazing markedly reduced vegetation coverage (Fig.…”

Section: X) and The Vegetation Characteristics (Y)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Yang

Xiong

et al. 2016

Environ Monit Assess

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As the main form of land use and human disturbance of grassland, livestock grazing has great influences on the soil resources and plant communities. This study observed the variation of soil properties and community characteristics of four treatments of different grazing intensity (no grazing, UG; light grazing, LG; moderate grazing, MG; and heavy grazing, HG) in an alpine meadow of Sichuan Province on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that grazing increased the pH, soil bulk density (BD), and contents of total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN), and the BD increased while the others decreased with the grazing intensity. At the community level, with the increase of the grazing intensity, the vegetation coverage (R 2 = 0.61, P < 0.001), mean height of community (R 2 = 0.37, P < 0.001), aboveground biomass (R 2 = 0.54, P < 0.001), litter biomass (R 2 = 0.84, P < 0.001), and percentage of aboveground biomass of palatable grasses to total biomass (R 2 = 0.74, P < 0.001) significantly decreased, while the belowground biomass (R 2 = 0.72, P < 0.001) and the root/shoot (R/S) ratio (R 2 = 0.65, P < 0.001) increased. The species richness was the greatest at LG and the total biomass at UG. With grazing, the dominant species of the plant community shifted from palatable grasses (Gramineae and Cyperaceae) to unpalatable grasses (Compositae and Ranunculaceae). Based on the results, LG may be the optimal grassland management mode to be used in the long time in the alpine meadow of the Tibetan Plateau.

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Effect of long‐term grazing on soil organic carbon content in semiarid steppes in Inner Mongolia

Cited by 122 publications

References 44 publications

Influence of Grazing on Plant Diversityproductivity Relationship in Semi-Arid Grassland of South Africa

Influence of Grazing on Plant Diversityproductivity Relationship in Semi-Arid Grassland of South Africa

Effects of grazing exclusion on carbon sequestration and plant diversity in grasslands of China—A meta-analysis

Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

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