Research on Sustainable Development in an Alpine Pastoral Area Based on Equilibrium Analysis Between the Grassland Yield, Livestock Carrying Capacity, and Animal Husbandry Population

Abstract

Equilibrium of the grassland yield, livestock carrying capacity, and animal husbandry population is the key factor that influences the ecological environment and sustainable development in pastoral areas. It is of great importance to define the animal husbandry pressure and carrying capacity of an animal husbandry population for grassland management policy-making and the sustainable development of animal husbandry. As one of the areas with the most sensitive and vulnerable ecosystem in China, the Three-River Headwaters Region is an ecological barrier for the environmental security and regional sustainable development of Southeast Asian nations. It is of great significance to define the livestock carrying capacity and population pressure in the area. This research estimates the net primary productivity (NPP) of vegetation in the Three-River Headwaters Region using Carnegie-Ames-Stanford approach (CASA) model, estimates the grass yield on the basis of NPP data, and then estimates the reasonable livestock carrying capacity according to the grass yield. Meanwhile, combined with herdsmen investigation data, it establishes a quantitative relationship between the proper livestock carrying capacity and reasonable animal husbandry population. In addition, the spatial distribution of an overloading animal husbandry population is analyzed through spatial interpolation, which can provide theoretical support for the establishment of scientific ecological immigration policy and the sustainable development of local animal husbandry. The results show that (1) the total grass yield of the grassland in the Three-River Headwaters Region is 13.96 million tons, and the average grass yield is 529.87 kg/hm2, whilst the spatial distribution presents a decreasing trend from the east and southeast to the west and northwest; (2) the reasonable livestock carrying capacity is 14.03 million sheep units (hereinafter referred as “SU”), and the average livestock carrying capacity is 55.14 SU/km2; and (3) the reasonable animal husbandry population carrying capacity is 512,500 people, while the actual amount is 645,300, with 132,800 people beyond the carrying capacity, especially in Xinghai, Tongde, Zekog, Yushu, Nangqen, and Chindu County.

Research on Livestock Carrying Capacity of Arid Pastoral Areas Based on Dynamic Water–Forage–Livestock Balance in OtogBanner, China

“…The situation of grassland resources refers to the monitoring data collected by the OtogBanner grassland station, and OtogBanner has a total rangeland area of 1.9745 million hm 2 . Due to the outstanding problems of degradation, desertification, and salinization of rangeland in OtogBanner, in addition to the grassland ecological construction, the present situation of rangeland used for grazing is only 1.1277 million hm 2 .…”

“…The situation of grassland resources refers to the monitoring data collected by the OtogBanner grassland station, and OtogBanner has a total rangeland area of 1.9745 million hm 2 . Due to the outstanding problems of degradation, desertification, and salinization of rangeland in OtogBanner, in addition to the grassland ecological construction, the present situation of rangeland used for grazing is only 1.1277 million hm 2 . At the same time, OtogBanner is also an important tame forage base in Inner Mongolia, and there was 25,000 hm 2 of artificial forage planting area in 2016, with corn and alfalfa as the main tame forage crops.…”

“…There are more than 4 million km 2 of rangeland in China, accounting for 41% of territorial areas, which is the main animal husbandry production base in the country and the ecological barrier for wind prevention and sand fixation in the northern region [1][2][3]. Facing the current predicament of livestock overload and ecological imbalance of rangeland in pastoral areas [4,5], on the one hand, annual precipitation is only 241.2 mm, which is typical of the arid and semi-arid continental climate in OtogBanner [26].…”

Estimation of Grassland Carrying Capacity by Applying High Spatiotemporal Remote Sensing Techniques in Zhenglan Banner, Inner Mongolia, China

“…Thus, the development of a grassland utilization strategy to determine available grass yield is important for the coordination of grassland ecological restoration and husbandry sustainable development [76]. Zhang et al [77] determined grassland utilization strategies for both cold and warm seasons based on grassland vegetation types and grazing utilization patterns with reference to the industry standard NY/T 635-2002 and estimated livestock carrying capacity for the Three-River Headwaters Region. Kuang et al [30] developed a year-round grassland utilization strategy for 24 farms and ranches of the Hulunbuir Agricultural Reclamation Group based on grassland utilization patterns and assessed the ecological carrying capacity and the overloading condition of grassland.…”

Spatial Pattern Analysis of a Water-Related Ecosystem Service and Evaluation of the Grassland-Carrying Capacity of the Heihe River Basin under Land Use Change

“…The impact of land-use change on aquatic ecosystem services will lead to the change of the grassland-carrying capacity. At present, many types of research have been done on how to improve the carrying capacity of grassland and the healthy development of animal husbandry [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. These studies reveal several problems in the assessment of ecological services and carrying capacity.…”