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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (3): 41-55.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2022084

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Changes in vegetation characteristics and soil enzyme activities under different treatments in semi-arid meadow grassland

Zhi-ting WANG1(), Ting-xi LIU1,2,3(), Xin TONG1,2,3, Li-min DUAN1,2,3, Dong-fang LI1,2, Xiao-yong LIU4   

  1. 1.College of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering,Inner Mongolia Agricultural University,Hohhot 010018,China
    2.Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Water Resource Protection and Utilization,Hohhot 010018,China
    3.Collaborative Innovation Center for Integrated Management of Water Resources and Water Environment in the Inner Mongolia Reaches of the Yellow River,Hohhot 010018,China
    4.Wulanchabu Hydrographic Survey Bureau,Wulanchabu 012000,China
  • Received:2022-02-19 Revised:2022-05-23 Online:2023-03-20 Published:2022-12-30
  • Contact: Ting-xi LIU

Abstract:

Different grassland development methods, for example, burning, fencing enclosure, and grazing, have different effects on vegetation and soil. To explore the influence of different grassland treatment methods on meadow grassland, several sites within Horqin meadow grassland were selected for study. Four grassland treatments were applied: Enclosure (UNM), enclosure+mowing (M), enclosure+burning (F), and grazing (G). The activities of soil urease, soil alkaline phosphatase, and soil sucrase as well as vegetation characteristics in the growing season were analyzed to explore the best treatment method for meadow grassland. It was found that: 1) Soil enzyme activity decreased with increasing soil depth, and the differences among different treatments gradually decreased as the soil depth increased. 2) Compared with UNM, G resulted in decreased vegetation height, coverage, aboveground biomass, and soil enzyme activity at different points, but a higher richness index. 3) Compared with UNM, M resulted in different compensatory abilities of species in a range of functional groups. In M, the compensatory ability of Poaceae was greater than that of Compositae. 4) Compared with UNM, F resulted in increased vegetation height, coverage, aboveground biomass, richness index, and activities of the three soil hydrolases at different points. 5) Compared with G, M resulted in increased vegetation height, coverage, aboveground biomass, richness index, and soil urease activity, but decreased sucrase and alkaline phosphatase activities. In conclusion, our results show that controlled burning is the best development treatment for meadow grassland in semi-arid areas.

Key words: soil enzyme activity, seasonal dynamics, different grass treatments, meadow grassland