Long-term fencing improved soil properties and soil organic carbon storage in an alpine swamp meadow of western China

Wu, Gao‐Lin; Zhen-heng, Liu; Zhang, Lei; Ji-min, Chen; Hu, Tianming

doi:10.1007/s11104-010-0299-0

Cited by 221 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Previous studies revealed higher pH and BD in the grazing soil than in the no-grazing one in desert steppe (Deng et al 2014a), hill landscape (Deng et al 2014b), degraded sandy grassland (Su et al 2005), and alpine meadow (Ma et al 2015;Wu et al 2010). Soil pH is one of the main factors determining grassland plant community composition and is mainly determined by parent material and organic and inorganic matter content (Basto et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Yang

Xiong

et al. 2016

Environ Monit Assess

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As the main form of land use and human disturbance of grassland, livestock grazing has great influences on the soil resources and plant communities. This study observed the variation of soil properties and community characteristics of four treatments of different grazing intensity (no grazing, UG; light grazing, LG; moderate grazing, MG; and heavy grazing, HG) in an alpine meadow of Sichuan Province on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that grazing increased the pH, soil bulk density (BD), and contents of total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN), and the BD increased while the others decreased with the grazing intensity. At the community level, with the increase of the grazing intensity, the vegetation coverage (R 2 = 0.61, P < 0.001), mean height of community (R 2 = 0.37, P < 0.001), aboveground biomass (R 2 = 0.54, P < 0.001), litter biomass (R 2 = 0.84, P < 0.001), and percentage of aboveground biomass of palatable grasses to total biomass (R 2 = 0.74, P < 0.001) significantly decreased, while the belowground biomass (R 2 = 0.72, P < 0.001) and the root/shoot (R/S) ratio (R 2 = 0.65, P < 0.001) increased. The species richness was the greatest at LG and the total biomass at UG. With grazing, the dominant species of the plant community shifted from palatable grasses (Gramineae and Cyperaceae) to unpalatable grasses (Compositae and Ranunculaceae). Based on the results, LG may be the optimal grassland management mode to be used in the long time in the alpine meadow of the Tibetan Plateau.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Yang

Xiong

et al. 2016

Environ Monit Assess

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“…Especially, the area of grazing exclusion has reached 26.2 million hectares, accounting for 10.8% of China's natural grasslands since national conservation program RGLG implemented in 2003 (MAO, 2007(MAO, , 2014). Despite numerous site-level studies have analyzed the effects of grazing exclusion on diversity and carbon sequestration, controversial results still exist (Ren et al, 2008;Wu et al, 2010;Cheng et al, 2011;Hafner et al, 2012). These inconsistent results constrain our ability to make management decisions based on the literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of grazing exclusion on carbon sequestration and plant diversity in grasslands of China—A meta-analysis

Xiong

Shi

Zhang

et al. 2016

Ecological Engineering

173

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a b s t r a c tWidespread land degradation has strengthened the urgent need to restore overgrazing grasslands. China has implemented the program 'Returning Grazing Land to Grassland' (RGLG) through grazing exclusion by fence since 2003. Despite a lot of field experiments, there is still controversy on the effects of grazing exclusion on rangeland restoration, highlighting the need for synthetic analysis. We conducted a metaanalysis of 447 entries from 78 papers to analyze the spatiotemporal effects of grazing exclusion on plant diversity, productivity and soil carbon sequestration in the major RGLG-implemented provinces of China. Our results showed that, compared with the grazed sites, grazing exclusion significantly increased carbon stored in aboveground biomass, litter mass, belowground biomass and soils by 84.7%, 111.6%, 25.5% and 14.4%, respectively. Plant coverage, soil available nitrogen, soil available phosphorus and soil microbial biomass carbon increased by 52.0%, 21.7% 22.8% and 26.3%, respectively. However, grazing exclusion had little effects on recovering plant diversity in China's grasslands. Of the factors examined, climatic factors strongly modified the effects of grazing exclusion on ecosystem carbon stocks, for example, precipitation significantly amplified the positive effects. Grazing exclusion played a positive role in soil carbon sequestration in most grassland types except in temperate desert-steppe. But annual soil carbon sequestration rates decayed rapidly over time in both alpine meadow and temperate steppe. Short-term (≤5 years) grazing exclusion remarkably increased species richness, but not significantly in the long run. The threshold from neutral to negative effects of grazing exclusion on species evenness occurs after approximately ten years. Our findings provide evidence that grazing exclusion is an effective way to restore vegetation and sequestrate carbon in degraded grasslands, but not beneficial to plant diversity maintenance. The benefits of grazing exclusion are more effective in humid area than arid area. We suggest that grazing exclusion should be ceased after about six to ten years. Additionally, grazing exclusion should integrate with other appropriate management practices instead of operating on a stand-alone basis.

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“…The effects of grazing on soil carbon were studied in various grassland ecosystems over extensive time periods (Ingram et al 2008, Piňeiro et al 2010, but the results are partly contradictory (Milchunas andLauenroth 1993, Piňeiro et al 2010). For instance, in Tibetan alpine meadows, both negative (Wu et al , 2010 and positive effects (Gao et al 2007(Gao et al , 2009) of livestock grazing on SOC were reported.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Second, herbivores could alter soil carbon storage through changes in plant species composition (Bardgett and Wardle et al 2003, De Deyn et al 2008, Semmartin et al 2010, which was demonstrated to influence litter quality and decomposability (Bardgett and Wardle 2003). Although the mechanisms of grazing impact on soil carbon storage were extensively studied in a wide range of ecosystems worldwide (Ingram et al 2008, Piňeiro et al 2010, few studies examined the linkage between SOC storage and grazing-induced vegetation changes in Tibet (Wu et al 2010).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Grazing depresses soil carbon storage through changing plant biomass and composition in a Tibetan alpine meadow

Sun¹,

Wesche²,

Chen³

et al. 2011

Plant Soil Environ.

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Grazing-induced variations in vegetation may either accelerate or reduce soil carbon storage through changes in litter quantity and quality. Here, a three-year field study (2005)(2006)(2007) was conducted in Tibetan alpine meadow to address the responses of surface soil (0-15 cm) organic carbon (SOC) storage in the plant growing season (from May to September) to varying grazing intensity (represented by the residual aboveground biomass, with G 0 , G 1 , G 2 , and G 3 standing for 100%, 66%, 55%, and 30% biomass residual, respectively), and to explore whether grazinginduced vegetation changes depress or facilitate SOC storage. Our results showed that: (i) Higher grazing intensity resulted in lower biomass of grasses and sedges, lower root biomass, and in a change in plant community composition from palatable grasses and sedges to less palatable forbs. (ii) Increased grazing reduced the SOC content and storage with only G 3 showing an SOC loss during the plant growing season. (iii) Soil organic carbon storage exhibited a highly positive correlation with the residual aboveground biomass and root biomass. Our results imply that a grazing-induced reduction in plant biomass productivity and changes in species composition would depress soil carbon storage, and that an increase in grazing pressure can lead to a gradual change of alpine meadow soils from being 'carbon sinks' to become 'carbon sources' .

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Long-term fencing improved soil properties and soil organic carbon storage in an alpine swamp meadow of western China

Cited by 221 publications

References 25 publications

Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Effects of grazing exclusion on carbon sequestration and plant diversity in grasslands of China—A meta-analysis

Grazing depresses soil carbon storage through changing plant biomass and composition in a Tibetan alpine meadow

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