Vegetation Interactions for the Better Understanding of a Mongolian Ecosystem Network

Fujita, Noboru; Narantsetseg, Amartuvshin; Ariunbold, E.

doi:10.1007/978-4-431-54052-6_13

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Climate is an important determinant of vegetation composition (Wu et al 2017;Zerbo et al 2016). Among various climate factors, precipitation is particularly important to control the vegetative composition of plant communities in semi-arid and arid rangelands (Fujita et al 2013;Graetz et al 1988). Along the precipitation gradient from arid to semi-arid, the vegetation becomes dense and diverse and steppe-type varies gradually from desert steppe to typical steppe and to forest steppe in the Mongolian rangelands, where aridity primarily controls the composition of plant life forms (Fernandez-Gimenez and Allen-Diaz 1999; Narantsetseg et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The multiple effect is, however, not fully understood yet in Mongolian rangelands. Though there exist many studies to survey steppe plant community (Fujita et al 2013;Narantsetseg et al 2018;Wu et al 2017), it was rarely developed field evidences covering enough gradients of livestock pressure and climate together at both local and regional scales. The multiple effect has become particularly important to understand its potential linkage with an endemic livestock hazard (i.e., dzud) in Mongolian rangelands (Sternberg 2018), where temporary imbalances between the supply of palatable foraging resource and livestock demand can cause increased vulnerability to massive livestock mortality (Dietz et al 2005;Middleton and Sternberg 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Local and regional steppe vegetation palatability at grazing hotspot areas in Mongolia

et al. 2022

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Background: Climate and livestock grazing are key agents in determining current Mongolian steppe vegetation communities. Together with plant coverage or biomass, palatability of steppe community is regarded as a useful indicator of grassland degradation, in particular, at grazing hotspots in arid and semi-arid grasslands. This study analyzed relationships between livestock grazing pressure and steppe vegetation palatability at three summer pastures with different aridity (dry, xeric, and mesic) and livestock numbers (1,100, 1,800, and 4,100 sheep units, respectively). At each site, it was surveyed coverage, biomass, and species composition of different palatability groups (i.e., palatable [P], impalatable [IP], and trampling-tolerant [TT]) along a 1-km transect from grazing hotspots (i.e., well) in every July from 2015 to 2018. Results: In results, total vegetation coverage increased with wetness, 7 times greater at mesic site than dry one in averages (33.1% vs. 4.5%); biomass was 3 times higher (47.1 g m -2 vs. 15.7 g m -2 ). Though P was the dominant palatability group, the importance of IP in total coverage increased with aridity from mesic (0.6%) to dry (40.2%) sites. Whereas, TT increased with livestock numbers across sites. Locally, IP was observed more frequently near the wells and its spatial range of occurrence becomes farther along the transects with aridity across sites from mesic (< 100 m) to dry (< 700 m from the well). Conclusions: Our results showed that the importance of IP and its spatial distribution are different at both local and regional scales, indicating that the palatability parameters are sensitive to discern balance between selective-grazing demand and climate-driven foraging supply in Mongolian rangelands.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local and regional steppe vegetation palatability at grazing hotspot areas in Mongolia

et al. 2022

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“…However, recent evidence shows that most of the lowlands of the Basin were covered by forest-steppes prior to intensive anthropogenic impacts (Magyari et al 2010). The existence of forest-steppes in Mongolia is sometimes attributed to human activity (Hilbig 2000;Fujita et al 2013), but there is strong evidence suggesting that the forest-steppes are natural in this region (Dulamsuren et al 2005;Hais et al 2016) The existence of forest-steppes in the Russian Far East is sometimes attributed to human deforestation. The debate has not yet settled, but there is some evidence on the natural origin of forest-grassland mosaics in this area (Berg 1958;Skripnikova & Uspenskaya 2006;Martynenko 2007).…”

Section: Forest-steppe Biogeography and Main Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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2019

Pal. Grassl.

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“…The gentle leaf inclination in T. japonicum is effective at maintaining a low plant height, as is the short leaf length in T. collinum. If sheep and goats become very hungry, they may graze on the aboveground shoots and belowground rhizomes of herbs (Fujita et al 2013b). Livestock in the steppe and dry steppe zones are often hungry because of lower annual and seasonal pasture production compared with the forest steppe zone (Fujita et al 2013a).…”

Section: Significance Of Prostrate Rosette Leavesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capitulum and rosette leaf avoidance from grazing by large herbivores in Taraxacum

Fujita

Koda

2015

Ecological Research

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Plants defense against herbivore damage is achieved through resistance and tolerance, of which resistance is composed of avoidance and antibiosis. Plants have developed various adaptations that facilitate escape from herbivory. We hypothesized that post-anthesis prostrate scapes in Taraxacum is an adaptation for avoidance of capitulum grazing by large herbivores. To test this hypothesis, we divided flowering into the following four stages based on the external appearance of the capitulum: green bud, yellow corolla, brown corolla, and white pappus stages. We conducted an experiment in natural pasture in Mongolia to artificially raise capitula and rosette leaves of T. collinum. We measured the natural height of capitula and rosette leaves of the Mongolian pasture and urban species, T. collinum and T. ceratophorum, respectively, and of the Japanese rural and exotic urban species, T. japonicum and T. officinale, respectively. We investigated natural grazing by livestock in the field of the capitula and rosette leaves of the two Mongolian species. In Mongolia, naturally short capitula at the green bud and brown corolla stages and rosette leaves of T. collinum were not grazed. However, artificially raised capitula and rosette leaves of T. collinum and the naturally high capitula and leaves of T. ceratophorum were grazed. Short capitulum and leaf height was shown to be effective for avoidance of livestock grazing in Mongolia. In Japan, T. japonicum and T. officinale showed similar scape behavior to T. collinum and T. ceratophorum, respectively. We discuss the reasons for the capitulum behavior differences in Japan.

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Vegetation Interactions for the Better Understanding of a Mongolian Ecosystem Network

Cited by 13 publications

References 27 publications

Local and regional steppe vegetation palatability at grazing hotspot areas in Mongolia

Local and regional steppe vegetation palatability at grazing hotspot areas in Mongolia

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Capitulum and rosette leaf avoidance from grazing by large herbivores in Taraxacum

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