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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (9): 39-49.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2022381

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Long-term grazing disturbance reduced plant diversity in Stipa breviflora desert steppe

Min ZHAO1,2(), Kun ZHAO1, Yun-bo WANG1, Guo-mei YIN2, Si-bo LIU2, Bao-long YAN1,3, Wei-jun MENG4, Shi-jie LYU1, Guo-dong HAN1()   

  1. 1.College of Grassland and Resource Environment,Inner Mongolia Agricultural University,Hohhot 010018,China
    2.Inner Mongolia Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Sciences,Hohhot 010031,China
    3.College of Agriculture,Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities,Tongliao 028043,China
    4.Comprehensive Security Center of Ordos Bureau of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry,Ordos 017010,China
  • Received:2022-09-22 Revised:2023-01-04 Online:2023-09-20 Published:2023-07-12
  • Contact: Guo-dong HAN

Abstract:

The improvement of plant diversity is one of the manifestations of the restoration of degraded grassland. Overgrazing is the main cause of grassland degradation, and there is still controversy over grazing prohibition and grazing for the restoration of grassland plant diversity. In this study, Stipa breviflora desert steppe was selected as the object. During the peak of plant growth in August 2017, plant species, density, frequency and coverage were observed under different grazing intensities (no grazing, light grazing, moderate grazing and heavy grazing) in the enclosed steppe for 13 years (2004-2017). The relative dominance of plant species, functional groups and plant diversity index were analyzed. The results show that: with the increase of grazing intensity, the Patrick richness index, Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Simpson dominance index showed a decreasing trend, and no grazing exclusion was significantly higher than heavy grazing (P<0.05). Pielou evenness index under moderate grazing was the highest, and was significantly higher than heavy grazing (P<0.05). Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Simpson dominance index were extermely negative correlated with the important value of S. breviflora, but extermely positive correlated with the important value of Artemisia frigidaP<0.01). The relative dominance of dominant plants determined the level of plant diversity. By studying the effects of grazing intensity on plant diversity and its mechanism, we concluded that no grazing is one of the ideal ways to restore plant species diversity of degraded grassland in S. breviflora desert steppe, and light grazing will not change the stability of community.

Key words: grazing, desert steppe, plant diversity