Grazing significantly increases root shoot ratio but decreases soil organic carbon in Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau grasslands: A hierarchical meta‐analysis

Yan, Lijun; Li, Yong; Wang, Li; Zhang, Xiaodong; Wang, Jinzhi; Wu, Haidong; Yan, Zhongqing; Zhang, Kerou; Kang, Xiaoming

doi:10.1002/ldr.3606

Cited by 52 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Soil total carbon is a key factor affected by grazing (Hu et al 2016;Mcsherry and Ritchie 2013) which is the most frequently used trait in soil quality calculation (Askari and Holden 2014). The reduced carbon inputs from above-and belowground biomass in the degraded grassland may be the main drivers for the lower content of total carbon (Shen et al 2020;Wilson et al 2018;Yan et al 2020). In the meadow steppe, we also found that soil carbon stock was lower than the TG (Fig.…”

Section: Effects Of Grassland Degradation On Soil Qualitymentioning

confidence: 66%

“…Researches in grassland have shown that management intensification has an adverse impact on soil and plant characteristics (Askari and Holden 2014). For example, overgrazing not only reduces the biomass of palatable species (Gaitán et al 2018) but also changes root shoot ratio and soil bulk density (Hendricks et al 2005;Yan et al 2020), which in turn leads to a reduction in soil carbon and nitrogen pools (Hu et al 2016;Yan et al 2020). Thus, soil quality index is the summarizing of these interdependent properties by choosing the best representative indicators which can comprehensively evaluate the effects of grassland degradation on soil quality and ecosystem function (Zhang et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of grassland degradation on soil quality and soil biotic community in a semi-arid temperate steppe

Han

et al. 2020

Ecol Process

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Grasslands provide a number of ecosystem services for human society. Degradation of grasslands results in the loss of biodiversity and leads to the deterioration of ecosystem functions. In order to accurately assess the influence of grassland degradation on belowground ecosystems, we conducted experiments on a temperate steppe with different levels of degradation and investigated the influence of degradation on soil quality and soil biotic communities. Our results showed that grassland degradation significantly decreased soil quality, with lower values of soil quality index (SQI) observed in the degraded grassland than the meadow steppe and the grassland from the forest-steppe ecotone. Changes in the SQI along the grassland degradation gradient were positively correlated with soil carbon stock and the aboveground biomass, and negatively correlated with the root shoot ratio. Nematode trophic diversity and the ratio of fungal to bacterial PLFA were lower in the degraded grassland than the grassland from the forest-steppe ecotone. The dissimilarities in soil microbial and nematode community composition increased with the changes in soil quality index. Our results indicate that soil quality index based on the minimum data sets could effectively assess the influence of grassland degradation on soil biodiversity and ecosystem function. In order to effectively restore degraded grasslands, the key contributors to the soil quality, such as soil carbon, should be taken on priority basis for revitalizing the soil biodiversity and ecosystem function.

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Section: Effects Of Grassland Degradation On Soil Qualitymentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of grassland degradation on soil quality and soil biotic community in a semi-arid temperate steppe

Han

et al. 2020

Ecol Process

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“…Compared with the meta-analysis based on 140 studies over a China scale performed by Hao and He (2019), our meta-analysis indicated that the effects of grazing on the AGB of the Tibetan Plateau grassland was greater than in China scale, but the opposite results were shown for BGB. It is shown that grazing leads to more BGB allocation, which is conducive to the survival of high-altitude plants in an environment with low temperature and limited nutrients (Yan et al 2020).…”

Section: Compared With the Findings Of Grazing Studies In Other Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yan et al (2013) found that, compared to the global average value, grazing had a greater negative effect on grassland total biomass in China. The recent meta-analyses of Yan et al (2020) and Liu et al (2021)showed that heavy grazing significantly decreased the biomass and soil total N. However, a synthesis of the effect of grazing on alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau is still lacking, which indicated that the general response of alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau to grazing remains unclear. Given these studies, it is necessary to integrate the available data to analyze how grazing affects alpine grassland.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Meta-Analysis of The Effects of Grazing On Plant Diversity, Biomass and Soil Properties of Alpine Grassland On The Tibetan Plateau

Li¹,

Liu²,

Zhou³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Aim As one of the main human disturbance factors in the alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau, grazing not only directly affects grassland plant diversity and biomass, but also indirectly changes soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) of grassland. Despite of extensive field grazing experiments, the impacts of grazing on grassland diversity, soil C and N remain uncertain due to different grazing management.Methods We conducted a meta-analysis of 70 peer-reviewed publications to evaluate the general response of 11 variables related to alpine grassland plant-soil ecosystems to grazing.Results The results showed that grazing significantly increased species richness, Shannon-Wiener index and Pielou evenness index by 9.8%, 7.3% and 3.7%, respectively. Aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, soil organic carbon, soil total nitrogen, soil C: N ratio and soil moisture decreased by 41.9%, 17.7%, 13.1%, 12.6%, 3.3% and 20.8%, respectively. Soil bulk density and soil pH increased by 17.5% and 2.2%, respectively. Specifically, moderate grazing, long-duration (>5 years) and winter grazing contributed to the increase in the species richness, Shannon-Wiener index, and Pielou evenness index. Aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, soil organic carbon, soil total nitrogen and soil C: N ratio showed a decreasing trend with enhanced grazing intensity. Furthermore, grazing duration, grazing season, livestock type and grassland type also affected alpine grassland plant diversity, biomass, soil C and N.Conclusions Grazing is beneficial to the maintenance of plant diversity, but negatively affects the storage of soil C and N in alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau. We suggest that grazing should follow intermediate grazing practice and synthesize other appropriate grazing patterns, such as seasonal and rotation grazing, thus, further research on grazing management is needed in this regard.

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“…Plant biomass is the main input of organic carbon into the soil (Shipley and Parent, 1991). However, a not so frequently considered factor is plant litter quality, which can determine decomposition rates and patterns and hence soil carbon sequestration (Ottoy et al, 2017;Yan et al, 2018Yan et al, , 2019.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions between biogeochemical and management factors explain soil organic carbon in Pyrenean grasslands

Rodrı́guez

Canals²,

Plaixats

et al. 2020

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Grasslands are one of the major sinks of terrestrial soil organic carbon (SOC). Understanding how environmental and management factors drive SOC is challenging because they are scale-dependent, with large-scale drivers affecting SOC both directly and through drivers working at small scales. Here we addressed how regional, landscape and grazing management, soil properties and nutrients, and herbage quality factors affect 20 cm depth SOC stocks in mountain grasslands in the Pyrenees. Taking advantage of the high variety of environmental heterogeneity in the Pyrenees, we built a dataset (n=128) that comprises a wide range of environmental and management conditions. This was used to understand the relationship between SOC stocks and their drivers considering multiple environments. We found that temperature seasonality (difference between mean summer temperature and mean annual temperature; TSIS) was the most important geophysical driver of SOC in our study, depending on topography and management. TSIS effects on SOC increased in exposed hillsides, slopy areas, and relatively intensively grazed grasslands. Increased TSIS probably favours plant biomass production, particularly at high altitudes, but landscape and grazing management factors regulate the accumulation of this biomass into SOC. Concerning biochemical SOC drivers, we found unexpected interactive effects between grazer type, soil nutrients and herbage quality. Soil N was a crucial SOC driver as expected but modulated by livestock species and neutral detergent fibre contenting plant biomass; herbage recalcitrance effects varied depending on grazer species. These results highlight the gaps in knowledge about SOC drivers in grasslands under different environmental and management conditions. They may also serve to generate testable hypotheses in later/future studies directed to climate change mitigation policies.

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Grazing significantly increases root shoot ratio but decreases soil organic carbon in Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau grasslands: A hierarchical meta‐analysis

Cited by 52 publications

References 79 publications

Effect of grassland degradation on soil quality and soil biotic community in a semi-arid temperate steppe

Effect of grassland degradation on soil quality and soil biotic community in a semi-arid temperate steppe

A Meta-Analysis of The Effects of Grazing On Plant Diversity, Biomass and Soil Properties of Alpine Grassland On The Tibetan Plateau

Interactions between biogeochemical and management factors explain soil organic carbon in Pyrenean grasslands

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