Optimizing management to conserve plant diversity and soil carbon stock of semi-arid grasslands on the Loess Plateau

Chai, Qinglin; Ma, Zhanying; Chang, Xiaofeng; Wu, Guoxiong; Zheng, Jiyong; Li, Zhongwu; Wang, Guojie

doi:10.1016/j.catena.2018.09.034

Cited by 26 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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Section: Grassland Yield Responses To Soil Attribute Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is therefore expected that soils under mowing would be particularly sensitive to daily temperature fluctuation and would be exposed to freezing and thawing, leading to earlier ground frost and deeper freezing in autumn (Pavlů et al., 2013). In warm‐season, when the above‐ground biomass is removed, the soil absorbs more light, which increases soil temperature and soil evaporation and significantly reduces soil moisture (Chai et al., 2019; Simons et al., 2017). Soil available water is exhausted especially in the intensive‐mowed soils through high evaporation rate in comparison to un‐mowed soils.…”

Section: How Does Mowing Affect Grassland Soil Responses?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, because of reduced sward vitality under high mowing frequency, the proportion of bare soil increases, resulting in a greater reduction in soil moisture. Soil moisture reduction would consequently feedback into plant production due to the importance of soil water content in plant growth (Chai et al., 2019). For instance, the highest above ground biomass is obtained in three times cutting regimes compared to five times cutting regimes (Nüsse et al., 2018) due to recovery interval after each cut, although vegetation types response to mowing differently (Liang et al., 2019).…”

Section: Grassland Management Effects On Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How does grassland management affect physical and biochemical properties of temperate grassland soils? A review study

Mayel

Jarrah

Kuka

2021

Grass and Forage Science

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Temperate grasslands occupy 9 million km 2 , representing 8% of earth's terrestrial surface (Figure 1) (Sala et al., 2013;White et al., 2000). Most permanent grasslands are land-use systems established by humans over centuries and therefore a part of our cultural landscape (Hejcman et al., 2013). Grasslands occur most commonly where site-specific conditions are less favourable for crop farming, while primarily found on marginal land. Grassland herbaceous plant communities evolved in close relation with herbivores and are adapted to defoliation. Defoliation is defined as removing plant shoots by grazing or mowing, and it is described in terms of intensity, interval between events, timing relative to season or plant growth stage, or by its spatial heterogeneity (Sollenberger

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Section: Grassland Yield Responses To Soil Attribute Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: How Does Mowing Affect Grassland Soil Responses?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Grassland Management Effects On Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How does grassland management affect physical and biochemical properties of temperate grassland soils? A review study

Mayel

Jarrah

Kuka

2021

Grass and Forage Science

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“…Grasslands occupy approximately 20% of the terrestrial surface and play an important role in providing multiple ecosystem and cultural services, and supporting peoples' livelihoods [7,8]. The Leymus chinensis steppe is typical steppe, occupying approximately 25% of all grasslands in Inner Mongolia, China [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent decades, because of climate deterioration, overgrazing, and unreasonable human activities, severe deterioration phenomenon have been increasingly occurring in this steppe [10][11][12]. Grazing exclusion, as one of the most common and effective strategies for restoring degraded grasslands [8,13,14] has been widely believed to increase the vegetation productivity to a more productive state [12][13]. In addition, grazing exclusion has been considered to improve the soil bacterial diversity in semiarid grasslands [15,16], and enhance the growth of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil bacterial community and functions directly respond to grazing exclusion in a Leymus chinensis steppe of Inner Mongolia, China

Deng

Bai

Zhu

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background Grazing exclusion is a common grassland management strategy for restoring degraded grasslands. Its effectiveness on optimizing plant species community, increasing vegetation diversity and biomass, improving soil fertility, has been widely documented in literatures. However, little is known on the responses of the absolute abundance and the ecological functions of soil bacterial community to long-term grazing exclusion. Result In this study, the absolute abundance, diversity, and ecological functions of soil bacterial community were determined by the high-throughput absolute quantitative sequencing technology on a long-term grazing exclusion (40 years, GE) area and three free grazing areas (FGs) within a Leymus chinensis steppe of Inner Mongolia, China, and analyzed the driving forces leading to the variations in soil bacterial community and functions. Our results showed that there was significantly higher soil bacterial abundance in the GE than the FGs along with corresponding variations in vegetation and soil properties. With the decrease of vegetation aboveground biomass, the absolute abundance of soil bacterial community also decreased. Among the phyla of the soil bacterial communities, the relative abundances of Chloroflexi and Firmicutes phyla were especially lower, and that of Verrucomicrobia phylum was higher in the GE than the FGs; the absolute abundances of Euryarchaeota and Microgenomates phyla were especially higher in the GE than the FGs. Conclusions This study suggested that long-term grazing exclusion significantly increased the absolute abundance, changed soil bacterial composition, and especially enhanced bacterial motility and chemotaxis. In particular, soil organic matter was the important agent to influence and connect vegetation and soil. This work will enrich our understanding of the responses of absolute abundance, diversity, and function of the soil bacterial community to long-term grazing exclusion, and help the evaluation of grassland degradation degree and restoration strategy effectiveness.

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Litter accumulation suppresses grass production but facilitates shrub expansion in a long‐term fenced grassland

Zhang,

Chang,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Ecosphere

Self Cite

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Shrub expansion is increasing in grasslands worldwide and has profound effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Shrub expansion has primarily been explained by extrinsic factors such as climate change and human activities, yet the roles of intrinsic shrub demographic population dynamic and shrub–grass interaction remain poorly understood. With a paired mown and exclosure comparison experiment and baseline levels of shrub abundance in a semiarid grassland, we confirmed that long‐term livestock exclusion promotes expansion of two native shrubs, Artemisia sacrorum and Caragana brachypoda. Shrub abundance increased during the livestock exclusion period. Shrub biomass in fenced plots was about 5‐ to 10‐fold greater than in mown plots. Both increase in population density and individual size (especially height) contributed to shrub increase. The mechanism behind this was the divergent effects of litter accumulation on shrubs and grasses. Litter accumulation suppressed grass production, while facilitating shrub recruitment and growth. Our findings highlight the potential role of litter accumulation‐mediated shifts in shrub–grass interactions, which should be incorporated into grazing top‐down control to better predict the restoration outcomes of grassland management changes. The identified internal biotic mechanism raises the possibility that removal of accumulated litter by grazing or mowing may be an alternative way to maintain or restore a grass‐dominated state in shrub expansion areas.

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Optimizing management to conserve plant diversity and soil carbon stock of semi-arid grasslands on the Loess Plateau

Cited by 26 publications

References 51 publications

How does grassland management affect physical and biochemical properties of temperate grassland soils? A review study

How does grassland management affect physical and biochemical properties of temperate grassland soils? A review study

Soil bacterial community and functions directly respond to grazing exclusion in a Leymus chinensis steppe of Inner Mongolia, China

Litter accumulation suppresses grass production but facilitates shrub expansion in a long‐term fenced grassland

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