Short-term grazing changed temporal productivity stability of alpine grassland on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau via response species richness and functional groups asynchrony

Temporal Stability of Grazed Grassland Ecosystems Alters Response to Climate Variability, While Resistance Stability Remains Unchanged

“…By preferentially consuming palatable species such as L. chinensis, sheep increase the competitive advantage of the more grazing-resistant bunchgrass S. grandis in the community, resulting in reduced community evenness. Lower community evenness diminishes the asynchronous response of species to environmental fluctuations [8,34,43], and lower species asynchrony reduces the insurance effect of biodiversity on temporal stability [44]. Our findings suggest that species asynchrony associated with plant community evenness is a key factor for maintaining the productivity stability of the grazing grassland ecosystem.…”

“…Consistent with our hypothesis that grazing intensity affects the stability of production in temperate arid grassland, we found that grazing reduced the stability of ANPP. Specifically, grazing intensity decreased temporal stability but did not affect resistance stability significantly [8,34,43,44]. The detrimental effect of grazing intensity on temporal stability was extensively documented, and asynchrony was identified as a major factor reducing temporal stability across many studies [34,44].…”

Analysis of the coupling coordination of livestock production, residential consumption, and resource and environmental carrying capacity in China

“…These findings indicate that the ability of western China to sustain expansions in the scale of the livestock industry is both a present and future concern. In fact, the Chinese government proposed ecological civilization construction as early as 2012; this concept requires improving the ecological environment by adjusting the industrial layout and investment in environmental management (He et al, 2023). Furthermore, the pattern of China's livestock production has changed.…”

“…However, this scenario has exacerbated ecological degradation in western China (Briske et al, 2015). Several studies have shown that the soil and pastures in western China have been severely damaged by the continued expansion of grazing (Dong et al, 2020;He et al, 2023). In fact, the Chinese government has advocated using the production method of "grazing prohibition, resting grazing and rotational grazing" to reduce the ecological impact of grazing, but this method is not conducive to the livelihoods of herders and does not support the growing consumer demand for meat (Harris, 2010).…”

Changes in Nutrient-Regulated Soil Microbial Communities in Soils Concomitant with Grassland Restoration in the Alpine Mining Region of the Qilian Mountains

“…Additionally, it serves as the headwaters of inland river basins such as the Heihe River Basin and Shiyang River Basin in the northwest China region, as well as a water source for the Hexi Oasis region. The mining industry plays a significant role in the Qilian Mountains region and contributes to the economic advancement and industrial development of the northwest China region through the exploration and utilization of mineral resources [4,5]. However, mining activities in this area have led to a range of ecological environmental issues, including soil erosion, decreased soil quality, vegetation destruction, and alterations in soil and soil microorganism species diversity, particularly in the alpine grasslands [6].…”