Effects of long-term grazing exclusion on vegetation structure,soil water holding capacity,carbon and nitrogen sequestration capacity in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau

Grazing exclusion is one of the primary management practices used to restore degraded grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau.However,to date,the effects of long-term grazing exclusion measures on the process of restoring degraded alpine meadows have not been evaluated.In this study,moderately degraded plots,in which the vegetation coverage was approximately 65%and the dominant plant species was Potentilla anserina L,with grazing exclusion for 2 to 23 years,were selected in alpine meadows of Haibei in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.Plant coverage,plant height,biomass,soil bulk density,saturated water content,soil organic carbon(SOC)and total nitrogen(TN)were evaluated.The results were as follows:(1)With aboveground biomass and total saturated water content at 0-40 cm depth,the average SOC and TN contents in moderately degraded alpine meadows increased as a power function,and the plant height increased as a log function.(2)The average soil bulk density at 0-40 cm depth first decreased and then increased with increasing grazing exclusion duration,and the minimum value of 0.90 g·cm^(-3) was reached at 15.23 years.The plant coverage,total belowground biomass at 0-40 cm depth,total aboveground and belowground biomass first increased and then decreased,their maximum values(80.49%,2452.92g·m^(-2),2891.06 g·m^(-2))were reached at 9.41,9.46 and 10.25 years,respectively.Long-term grazing exclusion is apparently harmful for the sustainable restoration of degraded alpine meadows.The optimal duration of grazing exclusion for the restoration of moderately degraded alpine meadows was 10 years.This research suggests that moderate disturbance should be allowed in moderately degraded alpine meadows after 10years of grazing exclusion.

Long-term grazing exclusion influences arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and their association with vegetation in typical steppe of Inner Mongolia,China

It is not certain that long-term grazing exclusion influences arbuscular mycorrhizal （AM） fungi and their association with steppe vegetation. In this study, soil and plant samples were collected from two sites of grazing exclusion since 1983 （E83） and 1996 （E96）, and one site of free-grazing （FG） in the typical steppe of Xilinguole League, Inner Mongolia, China, and assayed for soil basic physicochemical properties, AM fungal parameters, aboveground biomass and shoot phosphorus （P） uptake as well. The results showed that long-term grazing exclusion of E83 and E96 led to less drastic seasonal changes and significant increases in spore density, hyphal length density and root colonization intensity of AM fungi and even soil alkaline phosphatase activity, by up to 300, 168, 110 and 102％, respectively, compared with those of FG site. In addition, the total aboveground biomass and shoot P uptake of E83 and E96 were 75-992％ and 58-645％, respectively, higher than those of FG. Generally, the root colonization intensity, spore density, and hyphal length density of AM fungi were all positively correlated with the aboveground biomass and even shoot P uptake of plant. These results may imply that grazing exclusion play a critical role in increasing the growth of AM fungi, and subsequently, may increase plant P uptake and aboveground biomass production. Moreover, the spore density could sensitively reflect the impacts of long-term grazing exclusion on AM fungi since survival strategy of spores in soil.

Accumulation of soil organic carbon during natural restoration of desertified grassland in China's Horqin Sandy Land

China＇s Horqin Sandy Land,a formerly lush grassland,has experienced extensive desertification that caused considerable carbon（C） losses from the plant-soil system.Natural restoration through grazing exclusion is a widely suggested option to sequester C and to restore degraded land.In a desertified grassland,we investigated the C accumulation in the total and light fractions of the soil organic matter from 2005 to 2013 during natural restoration.To a depth of 20 cm,the light fraction organic carbon（LFOC） storage increased by 221 g C/m2（84%） and the total soil organic carbon（SOC） storage increased by 435 g C/m2（55%）.The light fraction dry matter content represented a small proportion of the total soil mass（ranging from 0.74% in 2005 to 1.39% in 2013）,but the proportion of total SOC storage accounted for by LFOC was remarkable（ranging from 33% to 40%）.The C sequestration averaged 28 g C/（m2·a） for LFOC and 54 g C/（m2·a） for total SOC.The total SOC was strongly and significantly positively linearly related to the light fraction dry matter content and the proportions of fine sand and silt＋clay.The light fraction organic matter played a major role in total SOC sequestration.Our results suggest that grazing exclusion can restore desertified grassland and has a high potential for sequestering SOC in the semiarid Horqin Sandy Land.