Effects of Grazing Exclusion by Fence on Vegetation Characteristics and Community Diversity of Mongolian Grasslands

Effects of Grazing Enclosures on Species Diversity, Phenology, Biomass, and Carrying Capacity in Borana Rangeland, Southern Ethiopia

“…However, in arid and semi-arid rangelands like Borana, a change in grass abundance through GE takes many years, so we strongly recommend that other management strategies, like reseeding local grass species and fertilization or animal manure, may be better to speed up the rehabilitation rate of degraded rangeland by increasing grass abundance. This result is entirely in agreement with the data reported by Tadesse et al (2002) and Guo et al (2020). The response of species' diversity for GE was both positively and negatively significantly impacted.…”

“…In general, GE facilitated an increment of grass species' height both in LtGE and StGE treatments, significantly at the StGE site (Figure 2A). This finding is in line with the results found in other studies (Li et al, 2017;Suizi et al, 2019;Guo et al, 2020). This is basically due to the decrease in livestock grazing, which allowed the recovery of species and accumulation of biomass (Muhammad et al, 2019;Song et al, 2020).…”

“…To assess the effects of GE on grass species' phenology, we established an evaluation index of the relationship change of phenological stage (EIRCP) to describe phenological differences between GE and OG sites. The index was calculated according to (Eqs 5 and 6) (Guo et al, 2020).…”

“…Psi = the phenological period of species i; APS = the average phenological period of all species inside (GE) or outside (OG) sites; and the number 4 = the maximum phenological differences between inside and outside the enclosure. If the EIRCP value is greater than 0, this tells us the grass phenology improved; if EIRCP value is less than 0, it indicates the grass phenology declined or delayed, and its value ranges between −1 and 1 (Yao et al, 2019;Guo et al, 2020). All statistical analyses were performed using the mean of different variables for the three subplots in both OG and enclosed rangeland.…”

“…Thus, the GE has significant effects on plant phenological development. Key aspects of plant phenology, such as greening, seeding, and flowering, have profound implications for the restoration of degraded grasslands (Guo et al, 2020). Various studies have indicated that StGE shows a better increase in species' richness and advances the plant species' phenology, and the situation may cease as GE duration increases (Komac et al, 2015;Xiong et al, 2016).…”