Effects of excluding grazing on the vegetation and soils of degraded sparse-elm grassland in the Horqin Sandy Land, China

Tang, Jiao; Davy, A. J.; Jiang, Deming; Musa, Ala; Wu, Dingfeng; Wang, Yongcui; Miao, Chunping

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2016.11.005

Cited by 58 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Moreover, the existing sole studied on the effectiveness of established EXs to improve soil carbon stock potential was inconsistent and variable (Piñeiro et al 2010;Raiesi and Riahi 2014;Aynekulu et al 2017). For instance, in some studies reported that EXs improves the carbon stock potential (e.g., Shrestha and Stahl 2008;Mureithi et al 2014;Yimer et al 2015) and several other observes decreases (e.g., Reid et al 2004;Mekuria et al 2017, Tang et al 2016 while Aynekulu et al (2017) and Mekuria et al (2014) reported that EXs did not influence soil organic carbon. SOC increased in the EXs, because grazing is one of the critical factors in species composition and grassland degradation that have a significant effect on carbon storage (Piñeiro et al 2010: Wu et al 2014Raiesi and Riahi 2014;Yimer et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of degraded land rehabilitation on carbon stocks and biodiversity in semi-arid region of Northern Ethiopia

Manaye

Negash

Alebachew

2019

Forest Science and Technology

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This study evaluated the effects of exclsoures (EXs) on restoring woody species diversity and carbon stocks over the adjacent degraded open grazing land (DOGL). Two proximate sites were purposively selected. Then, systematic sampling method was employed. A total of sixty plots were surveyed for both tree/shrub inventory and soil sampling purposes. Overall, 49 woody species belonging to 45 genera and 28 families were identified, it comprising 46 woody species in the EX and 26 woody species in the DOGL. Species richness, Shannon and Simpson diversity indices were significantly higher in the EXs than DOGL. The total carbon stock was significantly higher in EXs (61.3 Mg C ha À1 , it ranged from 54.3 to 68.3 Mg C ha À1) than DOGL (40.4 Mg C ha À1 , it ranged from 35.1 to 45.7 Mg C ha À1). The conversion of the DOGL to EXs enhanced soil organic carbon and aboveground biomass carbon stock by 38 and 197% at the age of 12 years, respectively. Woody species diversity, abundance and richness were positively correlated with biomass and soil organic carbon stocks. This study revealed that EXs assisted with enrichment planting can be considered as a viable woody species recovery and carbon sequestration strategy.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of degraded land rehabilitation on carbon stocks and biodiversity in semi-arid region of Northern Ethiopia

Manaye

Negash

Alebachew

2019

Forest Science and Technology

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“…Le Houérou (1995) stressed that the vegetation in these arid regions has adapted to recurrent drought conditions over centuries and past millennia acquiring an ability to recover their characteristics after disturbance. Similarly, Tang et al (2016) suggested that livestock exclusion can safeguards rangeland from livestock-induced disturbances and accelerate the recovery of degraded pasture species.…”

Section: Effects Of Sheep Exclusion On Overall Alpha Diversities and mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improving grazing management practices is viewed as a fundamental approach to restore degraded rangelands ( Mekuria andAynekulu 2011, Jones 2013). A variety of management strategies have been implemented to restore degraded rangelands worldwide (Neffar et al 2018), but the most fundamental and economic management practice remain a nature-based solution "grazing exclusion", especially in arid and semiarid regions (Tang et al 2016), due to its low investment, extensiveness, simple implementation, and quick response .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effect of short-or long-term grazing exclusion on plant communities of arid rangelands has been the focus of several recent studies. Some of them have found that short-term exclusion increases the richness and diversity of plant species (Zhang and Zhao 2015, Ebrahimi et al 2016, Liu et al 2019, plant cover and density (Al-Rowaily et al 2015, Tang et al 2016, and affects plant composition (Korkanç 2014). While, other studies have suggested that grazing exclusion does not have any significant effect on vegetation coverage (Kakinuma et al 2017), or have negative effects on species richness and diversity (Yao et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Responses of Individual Plant Species, Functional Groups, <em>α</em>- and <em>β</em>-Diversity to Short-Term Grazing Exclusion under Severe Drought Episode in Long-Term Grazed Alfa-Steppes

Kouba¹,

Merdas²,

Saadali³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Grazing exclusion has been proved to be one of the main measures for rehabilitating degraded arid steppes. However, the effect of this management practice on plant species diversity and composition is ambiguous, specially under prolonged droughts. Concurrently considering the responses of individual plant species, diversity of functional groups, α-diversity, and β-diversity (and its components) may be crucial to the holistic understanding of grazing exclusion effects on plant communities under drought conditions. Here, we investigated the response of these diversity measures to short-term sheep exclusion under severe drought episode in arid steppes of Alfa-grass (Stipa tenacissima) with a long evolutionary history of livestock grazing. Individual species responses were tested based on species occurrence and abundance in either grazed or grazing-excluded steppes, in addition, we used indicator species analysis to assess the strength of the association between plant species and management type. Likewise, α-diversity, abundance- and incidence-based β-diversity, as well as the functional groups’ diversities were quantified using Hill Numbers and compared between the two management types. Sheep grazing exclusion enabled the recovery of various Alfa-steppe indicator species and improved the size of regional species pool, overall α-diversity, and the diversity of therophytes. This management practice decreased the abundance-based β-diversity and the nestedness-resultant fraction of the incidence-based β-diversity at the local scale, while at the landscape scale increased the abundance-based β-diversity and its balanced variation fraction and reduced the incidence-based β-diversity and its turnover component. Furthermore, protection from grazing altered β-diversities scaling patterns by maintaining higher balanced variation in species abundance at large spatial scale and greater abundance-gradient in species composition at the fine-scale. Our results suggest that the implementation of short-term grazing exclusion in degraded arid steppes would be the appropriate management practice for vegetation restoration and plant diversity conservation during prolonged drought periods.

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“…Since the 1990s, land reclamation and livestock grazing have been widely conducted in arid and semi-arid lands of China (Stumpp et al, 2005;Tang et al, 2016;Jia et al, 2018), thus causing vegetation destruction and desertification (Zheng et al, 2003;Wang et al, 2004;Yan et al, 2016). Hence, it is essential to take measures to recover the damaged land in these areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of temperature and light on seed germination of ephemeral plants in the Gurbantunggut Desert, China: implications for vegetation restoration

Chen

Cao

et al. 2019

J. Arid Land

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Seed germination is a key transitional stage in plant life cycle and is strongly regulated by temperature and light. Therefore, research on the effects of temperature and light on seed germination is extremely meaningful for vegetation restoration, especially in desert ecosystems. Seeds of 28 ephemeral plants collected from the Gurbantunggut Desert of China were incubated at different temperatures (5°C/1°C, 15°C/5°C, 20°C/5°C, 25°C/10°C and 30°C/15°C) in 12-h light/12-h darkness or continuous darkness regimes, and the responses of seed germination to temperature and light and the germination speed were studied in 2016. Results showed that seed germination percentage of the 28 ephemeral plants significantly differed to temperature and light. We classified the studied plants as the following groups based on their responses to temperature: 1 low temperature responsed plants, 12 moderate temperature responsed plants, 7 high temperature responsed plants, 4 non-responsed plants and 5 plants of no germination. It should be noted that Corispermum lehmannianum Bunge is sensitive to both moderate and high temperatures. There were 4 groups of plant in response to light, i.e., 7 light responsed plants, 10 dark responsed plants, 6 light non-responsed plants and 5 plants of no germination. Based on seed germination speed of the 28 ephemeral plants, we divided them into 4 patterns of germination, i.e., very rapid, moderately rapid, moderate and slow. Combining variations of temperature, precipitation and sand dune types in the study area, we suggested that very rapid and moderately rapid germinated plants could be used to moving sand dunes in early spring during vegetation restoration, moderate germinated plants could be used to semi-fixed sand dunes in late autumn, and slow germinated plants could be used to sand plain in summer. Thus, seedling establishment and vegetation restoration would be improved by considering seed germination characteristics of these ephemeral plants in the Gurbantunggut Desert, China.

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Effects of excluding grazing on the vegetation and soils of degraded sparse-elm grassland in the Horqin Sandy Land, China

Abstract: 32Livestock grazing is a crucial cause of vegetation degradation and desertification in sandy lands. 33The sparse-elm grassland of Horqin Sandy Land, China has suffered severe degradation of 34 biodiversity and ecosystem services. Management to exclude grazing is often necessary for

Cited by 58 publications

References 60 publications

Effect of degraded land rehabilitation on carbon stocks and biodiversity in semi-arid region of Northern Ethiopia

Effect of degraded land rehabilitation on carbon stocks and biodiversity in semi-arid region of Northern Ethiopia

Responses of Individual Plant Species, Functional Groups, <em>α</em>- and <em>β</em>-Diversity to Short-Term Grazing Exclusion under Severe Drought Episode in Long-Term Grazed Alfa-Steppes

Effects of temperature and light on seed germination of ephemeral plants in the Gurbantunggut Desert, China: implications for vegetation restoration

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