No abstract

Litter decomposition is an important component of nutrient cycling and carbon decomposition in grassland ecosystems, and livestock grazing has been a major human intervention to these process. The effects of grazing on litter decomposition vary with climate environment conditions and grassland vegetation types. Alpine mesophytic meadow and alpine semi鄄hydric marsh meadow are the two rangeland ecosystems commonly seen on the eastern Qinghai鄄Tibet Plateau, which differentiate themselves by not only the physic / bio environments but also the plant species composition and therefore the litter qualities. In order to understand grazing effects on the litter decomposition of these two meadows, grazed and fenced plots were set respectively on the both meadows. The rates of decomposition and nutrient release were measured for the three littler samples (mesophytic meadow mixed litter, Deschampsia caespitos litter, and Potentilla anserine litter)