The effects of plant community structure on population density of plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) in alpine meadow grassland

doi:10.11686/cyxb2017045

Abstract

Abstract: This study investigated the effects of pasture renovation by grass reseeding or complete resowing with Elymus nutans on population density of alpine plateau pikas. To compare the population density of plateau pikas in different vegetation types, a 50 ha area of fenced pika-damaged (Pika) pasture was identified, and 20 ha of reseeded (R) and 10 ha resown E. nutans plots (En) were established within the Pika pasture. It was found that plant species number, species diversity, density, height, aboveground biomass and vegetation ground cover all differed in the three kinds of plots. The E. nutans % of biomass in the three pasture types was: Pika 3%, R 55%, and En 91%. The plant species diversity gradient was R>Pika>En. However, vegetation ground cover, density, height and aboveground biomass ranked En>R>Pika. There were significant differences in total burrow number and occupied burrow numbers in the three kinds of plots. Total burrow number per 50 m×50 m sampling plot was 210, 110, and 40 for Pika, R, and En grassland, respectively, while occupied burrow numbers were 120, 50 and 11 for Pika, R, and En grassland. The burrow number in the Pika plot was 2.26 times and 17.09 times that in the R and En plots, respectively. Thus, the data indicate that E. nutans vegetation has a very strong inhibitory effect on occupation by plateau pikas. Correlations between plant species numbers and vegetation characters, and pika population density were also observed. Neither total burrow number, nor available burrow number was significantly correlated with plant species numbers, but burrow numbers did show a quadratic function correlation with Shannon plant species diversity index. There were significantly negative correlations between pika burrow numbers and vegetation cover, density, height and aboveground biomass. These results proved that, compared with undisturbed grassland damaged by pika, the changes of vegetation structure in both reseeded grassland and resown grassland had an important influence on population density of plateau pikas.

Key words: plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae), plant vegetation sturcture, population density, alpine meadow

ZHANG Ling-fei, WEI Wan-rong, SHI Gao-yu, ZHANG Wei-guo. The effects of plant community structure on population density of plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) in alpine meadow grassland[J]. Acta Prataculturae Sinica, 2019, 28(3): 93-100.

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