Effects of Grazing Exclusion on Soil Properties in Maqin Alpine Meadow, Tibetan Plateau, China

Li, Hongqin; Zhang, Fawei; Shaojuan, Mao; Zhu, Jingbin; Yang, Yongsheng; He, Honglin; Li, Yingnian

doi:10.15244/pjoes/62099

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Therefore, researchers have conducted a wide range of studies on the impact of grazing on grassland degradation from multiple angles. These include soil nutrients ( Jeddi & Chaieb, 2010 ; Xiong et al, 2014 ; Ma, Ding & Li, 2016 ; Li et al, 2016 ), vegetation ( Zhao et al, 2009 ; Jeddi & Chaieb, 2010 ; Cheng et al, 2011 ; Niu et al, 2018 ) and soil structure ( Li et al, 2011b ; Jaweed, Saptarshi & Gaikwad, 2012 ; Mofidi et al, 2012 ). China has a grassland area of 4.32 × 10 6 km 2 , which accounts for 40% of the country’s land area ( Tong, Zhao & Wu, 2018 ), and 90% of grasslands have been degraded to varying degrees.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies have found that the plant index is significantly correlated with grazing pressure ( Larreguy, Carrera & MB, 2014 ), and grazing prohibition can significantly increase aboveground and belowground biomass ( Cheng et al, 2011 ; Wu et al, 2014 ; Xiong et al, 2014 ; Li et al, 2016 ), plant coverage, plant richness ( Pei, Fu & Wan, 2008 ; Cheng et al, 2011 ; Chen & Tang, 2016 ), total biomass, and average height ( Pei, Fu & Wan, 2008 ).This may be attributed to the grazing prohibition hindering external disturbance activities, protecting the grassland crust structure, and providing opportunities for vegetation growth and reproduction. Moreover, grazing prohibition significantly reduces the root/shoot ratio, Shannon diversity index and evenness ( Wang et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of short-term grazing prohibition on soil physical and chemical properties of meadows in Southwest China

Zhu

Yuan

Gong

et al. 2021

PeerJ

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Background Grassland plays an important role in the ecosystem, but overgrazing harms the grassland system in many places. Grazing prohibition is an effective method to restore grassland ecosystems, and it plays a great role in realizing the sustainable development of grassland systems. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out research on the influence of regional grazing prohibition on the physical and chemical properties of different grassland systems. Methods In Potatso National Park, Southwest China, we selected experimental plots in the artificial grazing meadow area to study the effects of grazing prohibition on plant and soil indexes in subalpine meadows and swamp meadows. We investigated the biomass and species diversity of grazing prohibition treatment and grazing treatment plots and sampled and tested the soil index. The variation percentage was used to remove the original heterogeneity and yearly variation, allowing us to compare differences in plant index and soil index values between grazing prohibition and grazing treatments. Results Grazing prohibition increased the aboveground biomass, total biomass, total meadow coverage, average height, richness index, Shannon diversity index and evenness index and reduced the belowground biomass and root/shoot ratio in the subalpine meadow and swamp meadow. Additionally, grazing prohibition reduced the pH and soil bulk density and increased the soil total carbon, soil organic carbon, soil total nitrogen, soil hydrolyzable nitrogen, soil total phosphorus and soil available phosphorus in the subalpine meadow and swamp meadow. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis showed that both plant indexes and soil indexes were significantly different between grazing and grazing prohibition treatments and between meadow types. Short-term grazing prohibition had a great impact on improving the fertility of meadow soil in the study area. We suggest that long-term and extensive research should be carried out to promote the restoration and sustainable development of regional grassland systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of short-term grazing prohibition on soil physical and chemical properties of meadows in Southwest China

Zhu

Yuan

Gong

et al. 2021

PeerJ

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“…Therefore, various practices have been implemented that aim to rehabilitate degraded grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau. Among these efforts, grazing exclusion (GE) has been recommended as one possible method to restore vegetation and soil in degraded grassland ecosystems (Han et al, ; Li et al, ). Many studies have indicated that GE has significantly restored vegetation and enhanced rangeland health in overgrazed lands, which are characterized by low productivity, low vegetation cover, and low biomass (Hu et al, ; Wu, Du, Liu, & Thirgood, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing enhances soil nutrient effects: Trade‐offs between aboveground and belowground biomass in alpine grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau

2017

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Understanding the impact of grazing patterns on grassland production is of fundamental importance for grassland conservation and management. The objective of this study is to obtain an understanding of the trade‐offs between aboveground biomass and belowground biomass, which are influenced by environmental factors in free grazing (FG) and grazing exclusion (GE) alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau. We explored the relationships between the trade‐off and environmental factors using correlation analysis, a generalized additive model and a structural equation model, and then found that the key factors that determine trade‐off showed differences in FG and GE grasslands and that the final structural equation modeling result explained that 96% (path coefficient = 0.96) and 65% (path coefficient = 0.65) of the variations in the trade‐off were due to FG or GE classifications, respectively. The results demonstrated that soil organic carbon, soil carbon/soil nitrogen, and soil available nitrogen affect the trade‐off between aboveground and belowground biomass in FG grasslands more obviously than in GE grasslands. However, the effects of growing season temperature on the trade‐off were insignificant, −0.218 and −0.181 in FG and GE grasslands, respectively. FG increased the soil bulk density, which resulted in an alteration in the soil pore size distribution and a greater resistance to root penetration. In addition, FG affected the level of soil nutrition, which will affect the nitrogen mineralization of decomposition and absorption, as well as the root biomass. Consequently, this study can provide guidance to improve the quality of grassland.

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“…Different studies also have a marked difference in the effects of grazing on soil property in alpine grassland. Some studies had shown that grazing had negative effects on soil C and N (Li et al 2016a;Shi et al 2013;Sun et al 2011), while others studies found that grazing had no significant effect on soil C and N (Lu et al 2015b). In addition, many previous studies have demonstrated that heavy grazing reduced plant diversity, biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC) content in alpine grassland (Dlamini et al 2016;Sun et al 2011;Sun et al 2018), and moderate grazing might help balance species diversity protection and biomass production (Li et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Meta-Analysis of The Effects of Grazing On Plant Diversity, Biomass and Soil Properties of Alpine Grassland On The Tibetan Plateau

Li¹,

Liu²,

Zhou³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Aim As one of the main human disturbance factors in the alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau, grazing not only directly affects grassland plant diversity and biomass, but also indirectly changes soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) of grassland. Despite of extensive field grazing experiments, the impacts of grazing on grassland diversity, soil C and N remain uncertain due to different grazing management.Methods We conducted a meta-analysis of 70 peer-reviewed publications to evaluate the general response of 11 variables related to alpine grassland plant-soil ecosystems to grazing.Results The results showed that grazing significantly increased species richness, Shannon-Wiener index and Pielou evenness index by 9.8%, 7.3% and 3.7%, respectively. Aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, soil organic carbon, soil total nitrogen, soil C: N ratio and soil moisture decreased by 41.9%, 17.7%, 13.1%, 12.6%, 3.3% and 20.8%, respectively. Soil bulk density and soil pH increased by 17.5% and 2.2%, respectively. Specifically, moderate grazing, long-duration (>5 years) and winter grazing contributed to the increase in the species richness, Shannon-Wiener index, and Pielou evenness index. Aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, soil organic carbon, soil total nitrogen and soil C: N ratio showed a decreasing trend with enhanced grazing intensity. Furthermore, grazing duration, grazing season, livestock type and grassland type also affected alpine grassland plant diversity, biomass, soil C and N.Conclusions Grazing is beneficial to the maintenance of plant diversity, but negatively affects the storage of soil C and N in alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau. We suggest that grazing should follow intermediate grazing practice and synthesize other appropriate grazing patterns, such as seasonal and rotation grazing, thus, further research on grazing management is needed in this regard.

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Effects of Grazing Exclusion on Soil Properties in Maqin Alpine Meadow, Tibetan Plateau, China

Cited by 16 publications

References 14 publications

Effects of short-term grazing prohibition on soil physical and chemical properties of meadows in Southwest China

Effects of short-term grazing prohibition on soil physical and chemical properties of meadows in Southwest China

Grazing enhances soil nutrient effects: Trade‐offs between aboveground and belowground biomass in alpine grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau

A Meta-Analysis of The Effects of Grazing On Plant Diversity, Biomass and Soil Properties of Alpine Grassland On The Tibetan Plateau

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