Effects of long term fencing on biomass, coverage, density, biodiversity and nutritional values of vegetation community in an alpine meadow of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Yao, Xixi; Wu, Jianping; Gong, Xuyin; Xia, Lang; Wang, Cailian; Song, Shuzhen; Ahmad, Anum Ali

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2019.01.016

Cited by 56 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…The QTP is commonly called the "roof of the Earth" due to its high elevation, making it closer to harsh and extreme weather conditions [72][73][74][75] and degradation [69]. Climate change is considered to be one of the main causes of grassland degradation across the QTP [42,57].…”

Section: Degradation Caused By Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Literature has proven that climate change accounts for 56.7% of grassland degradation across the QTP [42]. The impact of climate change on the QTP has been felt in many ways, such as desert-extreme degradation, species extinction, decrease in biodiversity, and constant plant cover decrease over the years [25,41,55,72,73]. The unpredictable climate patterns have also influenced the river water quantity, storage, and flows, thereby affecting communities relying on water from the upper QTP region [55].…”

Section: Degradation Caused By Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Road and railway construction affected the vigilance behavior and initial flight ability of wild birds, and decreased aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP).[2,85,95-98]2. Climate changeIncreased unstable plant biomass; decreased plant cover and aboveground and belowground biomass; stimulated desert exacerbation; declined river water quantity, storage, and flows; decreased grassland quality and species richness, limiting precipitation and temperature; reduced permafrost and glacier receding; altered soil carbon and nitrogen cycling; and transformed alpine meadow into shrubs [25,34,41,55,60,72,73,85,[99][100][101]. 3.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Status and Challenges of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau’s Grasslands: An Analysis of Causes, Mitigation Measures, and Way Forward

et al. 2020

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Grassland ecosystems on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) provide numerous ecosystem services and functions to both local communities and the populations living downstream through the provision of water, habitat, food, herbal medicines, and shelter. This review examined the current ecological status, degradation causes, and impacts of the various grassland degradation mitigation measures employed and their effects on grassland health and growth in the QTP. Our findings revealed that QTP grasslands are continually being degraded as a result of complex biotic and abiotic drivers and processes. The biotic and abiotic actions have resulted in soil erosion, plant biomass loss, soil organic carbon loss, a reduction in grazing and carrying capacity, the emergence of pioneer plant species, loss of soil nutrients, and an increase in soil pH. A combination of factors such as overgrazing, land-use changes, invasive species encroachment, mining activities, rodent burrowing activities, road and dam constructions, tourism, migration, urbanization, and climate change have caused the degradation of grasslands on the QTP. A conceptual framework on the way forward in tackling grassland degradation on the QTP is presented together with other appropriate measures needed to amicably combat grassland degradation on the QTP. It is recommended that a comprehensive and detailed survey be carried out across the QTP to determine the percentage of degraded grasslands and hence, support a sound policy intervention.

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Section: Degradation Caused By Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Degradation Caused By Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Status and Challenges of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau’s Grasslands: An Analysis of Causes, Mitigation Measures, and Way Forward

et al. 2020

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“…Compared with the other three plots, the litter accumulation of grassland in the TE (fenced for 10 years) increased significantly, with an average value of 320 g/m 2 . This is because with the time of fencing exceeding ten years, some rhizome-type high-biomass grass species, such as Leymus chinensis, have expanded and multiplied in large numbers, gradually becoming the clear dominant species within the community [52]. The higher aboveground biomass increased the growth rate of litter accumulation, resulting in a relatively high accumulation of litter in the TE.…”

Section: Characteristics Of Litter Accumulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water-Holding Characteristics of Litter in Meadow Steppes with Different Years of Fencing in Inner Mongolia, China

Xie

2020

Water

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As a main restoration measure to address degraded grasslands, the installation of fences is often accompanied by accumulation of organic litter. This accumulated litter is a layer of physical moisture which intercepts rainfall and may inhibit plant growth and development. One of the important means to judge a reasonable length of time of fencing (the time a fence is present) is through assessing the water-holding mechanism and capacity of the litter. In this study, four meadows in the Chinese Hulunbuir grassland with different years of fencing duration were investigated in order to obtain data on organic community and litter accumulation. A soaking method was used to study water-holding characteristics of the litter and was divided into three parts of stem, leaves and decomposed parts as a means to summarize the water-holding mechanism within the litter. The results showed that: (1) Compared with the light grazing meadows, the diversity and uniformity of communities in meadows of fencing displayed a downward trend, while the accumulation of litter increased. (2) The stems, leaves, and decomposed components of litter in different communities showed a highly positive linear correlation with their maximum water-holding capacity (WHC). This indicates that the stem/leaf mass ratio and decomposition degree of litter are key factors in regulating WHC. (3) Based on this understanding, we established a model based on stem and leaf mass to predict the water-holding potential of litter in real world situations.

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“…The increase in livestock grazing numbers has increased grassland biomass consumption leading to grassland degradation via year-long overgrazing. Maintaining a balance between grassland biomass, diversity, and quantity is ultimately a question of balancing “human-grass-livestock” ( Yang et al, 2011 ; Yao et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant communities responding to grazing pressure by sheep in an Alpine meadow

Gong

Yao

et al. 2020

Translational Animal Science

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The Chinese grassland ecosystem is an important national asset that not only impacts climate regulation, soil and water conservation, wind protection, and soil carbon and nitrogen fixation but is also an important contributor to maintaining grassland biodiversity while supporting livestock production. Grasslands are a key component contributing to the productivity of grazing animals but also provide basic food production via livestock grazing for herder survival. Grazing is the most basic means of grassland utilization but is considered one of the more important disturbance factors controllable by humans that has a universal and profound impact on the grassland ecosystem due to animal density and over grazing. For Alpine grasslands, it is not clear what grazing intensity (GI) can be achieved to improve plant biodiversity and vegetative nutritional value while improving sheep productivity. This field experiment was conducted for 7 yr comparing the impact of different GI on vegetation community characteristics, nutritional value, and sheep growth performance on the Alpine meadows of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. The GI measured were: Control: 0 sheep/ha; Low: 3.7 sheep/ha; Medium: 5.3 sheep/ha; and Heavy: 7.6 sheep/ha. The grazing experiment started in 2008, but experimental data collection and analyses were collected for the final 4 yr of 2015 through 2018. All grazing intensities >0 sheep/ha reduced (P < 0.05) plant height (27%, 46%, and 48%, respectively, for 3.7, 5.3, and 7.6 sheep/ha), ground coverage (16%, 24%, and 48%), and above ground biomass (2%, 42% and 53%) of the various plant communities while increasing (P < 0.05) the grass community density (individuals/m2) compared to a nongrazed Control. With increasing GI, the community height, coverage, and above-ground biomass decreased (P < 0.05), and the plant community density increased then decreased (P < 0.05) compared to Control. As GI increased, the available community biomass nutritional quality increased (P < 0.05). Comprehensive analysis showed that the community density (quantity) and nutritional quality were the highest when the GI was 5.3 sheep/ha. The higher the GI, the greater the grass’s nutritive value with lower above-ground net primary production (ANPP). When GI was the highest, the average daily gain (ADG) per hectare was the highest in the short term, but the highest GI endangers the ANPP and profitability of the grassland grazing ecosystem in the long term. Targeting a moderate GI (5.3 sheep/ha) can provide 78% of the ADG per hectare of the highest GI, which meets the requirement of maintaining a sustainable grazing grassland.

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Effects of long term fencing on biomass, coverage, density, biodiversity and nutritional values of vegetation community in an alpine meadow of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Cited by 56 publications

References 69 publications

Status and Challenges of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau’s Grasslands: An Analysis of Causes, Mitigation Measures, and Way Forward

Status and Challenges of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau’s Grasslands: An Analysis of Causes, Mitigation Measures, and Way Forward

Water-Holding Characteristics of Litter in Meadow Steppes with Different Years of Fencing in Inner Mongolia, China

Plant communities responding to grazing pressure by sheep in an Alpine meadow

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