Effects of nitrogen addition and mowing on rodent damage in an Inner Mongolian steppe

Abstract

Rodent damage is a serious threat to sustainable management of grassland. The effects of nitrogen (N) deposition and grassland management on rodent damage have been scarcely studied. Here, we reported the effects of 2 years of N addition and mowing on burrow density and damage area of Citellus dauricus in a semiarid steppe in Inner Mongolia. N addition significantly aggravated, while mowing alleviated rodent damage in the grassland under study. Burrow density and damage area increased 2.8‐fold and 4.7‐fold, in N addition plots compared to the ambient N addition treatment, respectively. Conversely, mowing decreased burrow density and damage area by 75.9% and 14.5%, respectively, compared to no mowing plots. Observed changes in rodent damage were mainly due to variations in plant community cover, height, and aboveground net primary productivity. Our findings demonstrate that N addition and mowing can affect the rodent density and activity in grassland, suggesting that the effects of a changing atmospheric composition and land use on rodent damage must be considered in order to achieve better grassland management.

Rapid loss of leguminous species in the semi-arid grasslands of northern China under climate change and mowing from 1982 to 2011

“…This may result from the same underlying mechanism that mowing leads to significant differences in energy partitioning between leguminous and non-leguminous species (Shao et al, 2012). This is consistent with the result obtained by Liu et al (2018), who performed a survey on the changes in plant diversity, composition and productivity in the semi-arid grasslands, finding that mowing significantly reduced above-ground net primary productivity by 21.7%. However, they also found that community structure was not altered by a short-term mowing, which was not in line with our results.…”

“…In addition to climatic factors, anthropogenic activities may play more important roles in altering grassland diversity and productivity relationships (Zhou et al, 2006;Miko and Storch, 2015). As one of the major management techniques for natural grasslands, mowing has markedly altered the composition and diversity of vegetation communities (Yang et al, 2012;Talle et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2018). Elucidating the effects of mowing, climate change and their possible interactions on productivity and diversity will help conserve biodiversity and stability of grassland ecosystems under global change scenarios.…”

“…However, the effects of these changes on plant species sensitivity between long-term and short-term studies are different. For example, long-term mowing increased plant diversity (Yang et al, 2012), but short-term mowing did not affect vegetation community structure in a semi-arid steppe (Liu et al, 2018). Here, our study was conducted to evaluate the effects of long-term mowing and climate change on functional group sensitivity of leguminous and non-leguminous species using detailed monitoring data from 1982 to 2011.…”

Relationships between plant community productivity and diversity vary with trampling disturbance in an Inner-Mongolian steppe

“…However, grasslands are degrading rapidly [2] due to climate change (including warming and changing precipitation regimes) and human disturbance (including the overgrazing, trampling by tourists, and vehicle disturbance). Symptoms of grassland degradation include rodent outbreaks [3][4] , decreases in the proportion of high-quality forage [5] , and reductions in plant diversity [5][6] and productivity [5] . In response to this degradation, several methods of grassland restoration have been deployed, including grazing exclusion [7][8] , replacing grazing with mowing [4,[9][10] , grassland re-establishment [11][12][13] , and some other methods [14][15] .…”

“…Symptoms of grassland degradation include rodent outbreaks [3][4] , decreases in the proportion of high-quality forage [5] , and reductions in plant diversity [5][6] and productivity [5] . In response to this degradation, several methods of grassland restoration have been deployed, including grazing exclusion [7][8] , replacing grazing with mowing [4,[9][10] , grassland re-establishment [11][12][13] , and some other methods [14][15] . Trampling by domestic animals and humans is among the more common disturbances in grassland ecosystems [16][17][18] .…”