Grazing exclusion is widely adopted in restoring degraded alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. However, its effectiveness remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effects of grazing exclusion on plant productivity, species diversity and soil organic carbon(SOC) and soil total nitrogen(STN) storage along a transect spanning from east to west of alpine meadows in northern Tibet, China. After six years of grazing exclusion, plant cover, aboveground biomass(AGB), belowground biomass(BGB), SOC and STN were increased, but species diversity indices declined. The enhancement of AGB and SOC caused by grazing exclusion was correlated positively with mean annual precipitation(MAP). Grazing exclusion led to remarkable biomass increase of sedge species, especially Kobresia pygmaea, whereas decrease of biomass in forbs and no obvious change in grass, leguminous and noxious species. Root biomass was concentrated in the near surface layer(10 cm) after grazing exclusion. The effects of grazing exclusion on SOC storage were confined to shallow soil layer in sites with lower MAP. It is indicated that grazing exclusion is an effective measure to increase forage production and enhance soil carbon sequestration in the studied region. The effect is more efficient in sites with higher precipitation. However, the results revealed a tradeoff between vegetation restoration and ecological biodiversity. Therefore, carbon pools recover more quickly than plant biodiversity in the alpine meadows. We suggest that grazing exclusion should be combined with other measures to reconcile grassland restoration and biodiversity conservation.
To better understand the ecological and economic benefits of short-term grazing exclusion on the aboveground net primary productivity(ANPP)of alpine pastures,we conducted annual multi-site transect surveys in the summers from 2009 to 2011 and calculated the aboveground biomass discrepancy(ABD)between grazed and ungrazed pastures at plant community and economic group levels for three zonal alpine grassland types—meadow,steppe,and desert-steppe—across the northern Tibetan Plateau.Our results indicated that aboveground biomass(AGB)significantly differed among grassland types and declined northwesterly from 64.07 to11.44 g m-2with decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature.The mean ABD exhibited considerable community dependency,with meadow(12.47 g m-2)[steppe(6.91 g m-2)[desert steppe(2.54 g m-2),and it declined from 25.42 to 1.29 g m-2with decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature.‘Good forage’,i.e.grasses and sedges,benefited most from grazing exclusion,followed by edible forbs.With longer grazing exclusion durations(GEDs),the aboveground biomass of poisonous locoweeds initially decreased and then increased compared with the adjacent grazed sites.In the nested analysis of co-variances with a general linear model,growing season precipitation(GSP;from May to September)accounted for 52.67%ofthe observed variation in AGB,followed by AGT(9.77%)and pasture management systems(PMSs;grazing or grazing-excluded,5.31%).The variation in ABD was explained primarily by AGT(16.52%),GED(20.25%),and the interaction of AGT 9 GED(19.58%).Our results confirm that precipitation is the primary factor controlling the ANPP of alpine grasslands on the Northern Tibetan Plateau and that the ecological benefits arising from grazing exclusion are also partly dependent on grassland type and exclusion duration.Therefore,spatial and temporal variations in growing season precipitation and plant functional traits or economic group composition should be jointly considered when developing policies concerning the management
Variations in the fractions of biomass allocated to functional components are widely considered as plant responses to resource availability for grassland plants. Observations indicated shoots isometrically relates to roots at the community level but allometrically at the species level in Tibetan alpine grasslands. These differences may result from the specific complementarity of functional groups between functional components, such as leaf, root,stem and reproductive organ. To test the component complementary responses to regional moisture variation, we conducted a multi-site transect survey to measure plant individual size and component biomass fractions of common species belonging to the functional groups: forbs, grasses, legumes and sedges on the Northern Tibetan Plateau in peak growing season in 2010. Along the mean annual precipitation(MAP) gradient, we sampled 70 species, in which 20are in alpine meadows, 20 in alpine steppes, 15 in alpine desert-steppes and 15 in alpine deserts,respectively. Our results showed that the size of alpine plants is small with individual biomass mostly lower than 1.0 g. Plants keep relative conservative component fractions across alpine grasslands at the individual level. However, the complementary responses between functional components to moisture variations specifically differ among functional groups. These results indicate that functional group diversity may be an effective tool for scaling biomass allocation patterns from individual up to community level. Therefore, it is necessary andvaluable to perform intensive and systematic studies on identification and differentiation the influences of compositional changes in functional groups on ecosystem primary services and processes.
