Floristic compositions of Inner Mongolian grasslands under different land‐use conditions

Abstract

The severe degradation of grasslands caused by overgrazing and other diverse human operations has become widespread in Inner Mongolia, China. In this study, the vegetations of several grasslands under different land-use conditions were compared to examine the relationships between the vegetation and the disturbance of the grassland. Floristic and life-form compositions of the stands representing the six different sites were researched by the quadrat method: a non-grazed grassland (G1), a lightly grazed grassland (G2), a path (P), an abandoned field (AF) and two artificial meadows (M1 and M2). P, AF, M1 and M2 were located in a part of the grazed grassland. AF, M1 and M2 had been tilled when planted. The dominant species found in G1 and G2 were Potentilla fragarioides, Poa annua, and Cleistogenes squarrosa. Artemisia annua, Chenopodium album, Cannabis sativa f. ruderalis and Calystegia hederacea were found in P and AF, being scarce in the grassland areas. Amaranthus retroflexus, Kochia scoparia and Setaria viridis, which are cosmopolitan weeds, were dominant only in AF. Leymus chinensis, Agropyron cristatum, Potentilla bifurca, and Potentilla tanacetifolia were widely observed across all the surveyed sites. The land-use change from grassland to path caused a decrease of perennial species and an invasion of annual species by heavy trampling. A similar vegetational change occurred with the land-use change from grassland to abandoned field due to the destruction of original vegetation by tillage. Human disturbance such as tillage and trampling also resulted in a decrease in the species with the tufted-and branchedform and an increase in the species with the erect-form. Tillage could produce a more serious impact on the grassland vegetation as compared to grazing. Flora of Inner Mongolian grasslands M. Ao et al.

The effect of grazing management on plant species richness on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau

“…the shift from winter to summer grazing grounds and vice versa ), whereas MH landholdings can be managed in a more traditional manner with alpine meadow allocated to the most suitable grazing season. Therefore, there is more sustained grazing pressure on the plant assemblage in SH plots than in MH plots because of trampling (Ao et al. , 2008) and non‐selective grazing (Milchunas et al.…”

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The Roles of Overgrazing, Climate Change and Policy as Drivers of Degradation of China's Grasslands

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Proxy quantification and mapping of seasonal rangeland herbage using grass cover in the cattle corridor of Uganda

“…Different rangeland sites have different rates of response to transition from dry or wet season and hence require different grazing management measures. Areas with longer time lag from dry to wet season are more susceptible to degradation and therefore need to be exposed to less grazing pressure, especially during the dry season, to minimize soil exposure to erosion and loss of soil moisture which may lead to rangeland retrogression (Ao et al 2008). On the other hand, rangeland sites that take a shorter time to recover from dry seasons are less likely to be affected by grazing pressure.…”