Long-term prediction of grassland production for five temporal patterns of precipitation during the growing season of plants based on a system model in Xilingol, Inner Mongolia, China

Yiruhan,; Shiyomi, Masae; Akiyama, Tsuyoshi; Wang, Shiping; Yamamura, Yasuo; Hori, Yoji; Ailikun,

doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.07.018

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…For 2013 and 2014, the average cumulated precipitation before summer pasture utilization amounted to 71 mm in China and 32 mm in Mongolia (Figure 1). These data imply that the Mongolian summer pasture suffered from low soil moisture contents in the late spring/early summer season; in addition, very low average daily air temperatures before the utilization period was of −11°C in Mongolia as compared with only −2°C in China (Figure 1) and was delaying vegetation growth (Yiruhan et al 2014). …”

Section: Quantity and Quality Of Herbagementioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal patterns of herbage availability and livestock movements: A cross-border analysis in the Chinese-Mongolian Altay

et al. 2016

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Due to increasing population and the recent implementation of policies to intensify the use of land and water resources, the transhumant pastoral systems in the Chinese-Mongolian Altay-Dzungarian region are rapidly changing, leading to modifications of herd size, herd composition and spatial distribution of livestock grazing. This may have major consequences for the supply and quality of rangeland biomass. Despite similar topographic settings, the socio-political framework for Chinese and Mongolian pastoralists differs significantly, leading to differences in rangeland utilization. To substantiate these claims, the long-distance transhumance routes, frequency of pasture changes, daily grazing itineraries and size of pastures were recorded by means of GPS tracking of cattle and goats on 1,535 (China) and 1,396 (Mongolia) observation days. The status quo of the main seasonal pastures was captured by measuring the herbage offer and its nutritive value in 869 sampling spots. In the Altay-Dzungarian region, small ruminant herds covered up to 412 km (Mongolia) and grazed on up to nine pastures per year (China). In Mongolia, the herds' average duration of stay at an individual pasture was longer than in China, particularly in spring and autumn. Herbage allowance at the onset of a grazing period (kg dry matter per sheep unit and day) ranged from 34/17 to 91/95 (China/Mongolia). Comparing crude protein and phosphorous concentrations of herbage, in China, the highest concentrations were measured for spring and summer pastures, whereas in Mongolia, the highest concentrations were determined for autumn and winter pastures. Based on our data, we conclude that regulation of animal numbers and access to pastures seemingly maintained pasture productivity in China, especially at high altitudes. However, this policy may prohibit flexible adaptation to sudden environmental constraints. In contrast, high stocking densities and grazing of pastures before flowering of herbaceous plants negatively affected rangeland productivity in Mongolia, especially for spring and summer pastures.

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Section: Quantity and Quality Of Herbagementioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal patterns of herbage availability and livestock movements: A cross-border analysis in the Chinese-Mongolian Altay

et al. 2016

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“…The annual precipitation at our survey site is about 400 mm (Cheng & Wan, 2002). In regions that experience severe climate events, there is usually a heavy drought at least once per 10-year period (e.g., Yiruhan et al, 2014). Drought combined with heavy grazing completely destroys grassland vegetation, and restoration from this state requires an exceptional amount of time and effort (Akiyama & Kawamura, 2007).…”

Section: Vegetation Process After Exclusion Of Livestockmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is because even the underground parts of plants experiences heavy damage, in addition to the aboveground parts of the plants. At this point of time, the grassland becomes completely exhausted, the vegetation is extremely degraded, and neither can be easily recovered (Wuyunna, Zhang, Shiyomi, & Hu, 2011;Yiruhan et al, 2014). In typical cases, so-called desertification occurs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Livestock‐exclusion duration required for restoring grassland in semiarid, loess region in China: Estimate based on species composition measured from small‐scale vegetation patterns

Yamamura

Cheng

Yasuda

et al. 2021

Ecological Research

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To restore the degraded grassland in the Yunwushan Natural Reserve of Ningxia semiarid loess region, Ningxia Autonomous Region, China, managers have established grasslands with excluding livestock from one large area every 5 years since 1982. The annual precipitation at the site is around 400 mm, and heavy grazing by sheep/goats has been conducted in the past. In July 2009 in which vegetation surveys were conducted, seven grasslands with different exclusion durations such as 0, 2, 7, 12, 17, 22 or 27 years had already been established. The objectives of survey were to clarify the vegetation changes with exclusion duration, and to estimate the number of years required for recovering the vegetation. In each of these grasslands, 100 50 × 50 cm 2 quadrats, each of which was further divided into four 25 × 25 cm 2 sub-quadrats, were set, and then each of the species occurring within each sub-quadrat was recorded. Aboveground biomass and soil hardness within each quadrat were also measured as auxiliary variables. We used eco-statistical survey and analysis methods of small-scale spatial patterns of vegetation. The followings are results obtained: after 12-17 years of exclusion, (a) the soil had softened; (b) the aboveground biomass had increased to amounts >200 dw g m-2 ; (c) the spatial uniformity in biomass increased to a stationary state; and (d) the dissimilarity of species composition between two successive exclusion durations decreased to a stationary state. We conclude from these observations that the degraded grassland required 12-17 years of exclusion to restore vegetation and productivity. We also proposed candidates of plant species to be seeded or planted for recovering degraded grassland in this area.

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“…Most of the 300 mm of mean annual precipitation falls during the growing season, from May through September (Zhao et al, 2011). The annual potential evapotranspiration is about 1,750 mm, and the mean annual air temperature is about 2.6°C (Chi et al, 2018; Yiruhan et al, 2014).…”

Section: Field Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Noninvasive 2D and 3D Mapping of Root Zone Soil Moisture Through the Detection of Coarse Roots With Ground‐Penetrating Radar

Liu

Chen

Butnor

et al. 2020

Water Resources Research

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Root zone soil moisture (RZSM) is important in sustaining terrestrial ecosystems and water cycling. However, noninvasive mapping of RZSM remains challenging in the field, especially its spatial variability at local scales. We propose a novel method of applying ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for noninvasive determination of RZSM. First, this method identified coarse root reflections in GPR images to obtain the reflected wave velocity and soil water storage at various locations. Then, the horizontal distributions of soil water storage to different depths were reconstructed using the inverse distance weighted interpolation. The difference in soil water storage between two depths was converted into 2D RZSM distribution for a specific depth interval. Finally, 2D RZSM distributions from a range of depths were combined to produce a 3D visualization of RZSM. The proposed method was validated in two field plots (30 m by 30 m) in shrublands. The comparisons with 2D RZSM distributions from soil cores sampled at 0.2-m depth intervals suggested a reasonable correspondence in both spatial patterns and absolute values, with the average root-mean-square error less than 0.017 m 3 ·m −3 and correlation coefficients ranging from 0.502 to 0.798 in both plots. Furthermore, 3D visualizations of RZSM were generated based on GPR estimates to demonstrate the spatial variability of soil moisture at the study scale. The proposed method enhances noninvasive characterization of soil moisture down to the root zone, which contributes to a better understanding of the local-scale variability of soil moisture in the subsoil as well as the ecohydrological processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum.

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Long-term prediction of grassland production for five temporal patterns of precipitation during the growing season of plants based on a system model in Xilingol, Inner Mongolia, China

Cited by 11 publications

References 32 publications

Spatio-temporal patterns of herbage availability and livestock movements: A cross-border analysis in the Chinese-Mongolian Altay

Spatio-temporal patterns of herbage availability and livestock movements: A cross-border analysis in the Chinese-Mongolian Altay

Livestock‐exclusion duration required for restoring grassland in semiarid, loess region in China: Estimate based on species composition measured from small‐scale vegetation patterns

Noninvasive 2D and 3D Mapping of Root Zone Soil Moisture Through the Detection of Coarse Roots With Ground‐Penetrating Radar

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