Abstract:

As the proportion of more nutritious forage species with good palatability in grassland is reduced or such species become absent due to grassland degradation， reseeding improved forages is an effective way to rapidly restore degraded grasslands. The selection of reseeding species is the primary factor affecting the success of reseeding. In this study， a method for selecting species for no-till reseeding restoration of degraded grassland was tested， using a typical grassland in Inner Mongolia with different degrees of degradation as the experiment site. Soil from degraded grassland patches was also retrieved for a growth test of potential species for reseeding， then the total biomass （Tb） and response to soil factors of each species were measured. Species were then selected for reseeding based on plant-soil feedback （PSF） and Tb， with preference given to species with positive or neutral feedback to the reseeded species and with non-significant differences in Tb between grassland plant patches. It was found that： Lightly degraded grassland with Leymus chinensis as the dominant species was best reseeded with Medicago falcata and Bromus inermis， lightly to moderately degraded grassland with Stipa capillata as the dominant species was best reseeded with L. chinensis， moderately degraded grasslands with Artemisia frigida as the dominant species were best reseeded with Lespedeza bicolor， and heavily degraded grasslands with Potentilla acaulis as the dominant species were best reseeded with Agropyron cristatum， which is not sensitive to changes in soil properties. This study is the first to establish a universal method for selecting species for replanting degraded grasslands， providing theoretical support for no-till reseeding restoration techniques for degraded grasslands both in China， and abroad.

Key words: degraded grassland, reseeding restoration, species selection, plant-soil feedback