Is grazing exclusion effective in restoring vegetation in degraded alpine grasslands in Tibet, China?

CORC > 成都山地灾害与环境研究所 > 中国科学院水利部成都山地灾害与环境研究所 > 山地表生过程与生态调控重点实验室

	Is grazing exclusion effective in restoring vegetation in degraded alpine grasslands in Tibet, China?
	Yan Yan; Xuyang Lu
刊名	PeerJ
	2015
卷号	3 页码:e1020
关键词	Grazing exclusion Alpine grassland Grassland degradation Community characteristics Biomass Tibet
ISSN号	2167-8359
通讯作者	Xuyang Lu
英文摘要	Overgrazing is considered one of the key disturbance factors that results in alpine grassland degradation in Tibet. Grazing exclusion by fencing has been widely used as an approach to restore degraded grasslands in Tibet since 2004. Is the grazing exclusion management strategy effective for the vegetation restoration of degraded alpine grasslands? Three alpine grassland types were selected in Tibet to investigate the effect of grazing exclusion on plant community structure and biomass. Our results showed that species biodiversity indicators, including the Pielou evenness index, the Shannon–Wiener diversity index, and the Simpson dominance index, did not significantly change under grazing exclusion conditions. In contrast, the total vegetation cover, the mean vegetation height of the community, and the aboveground biomass were significantly higher in the grazing exclusion grasslands than in the free grazed grasslands. These results indicated that grazing exclusion is an effective measure for maintaining community stability and improving aboveground vegetation growth in alpine grasslands. However, the statistical analysis showed that the growing season precipitation (GSP) plays a more important role than grazing exclusion in which influence on vegetation in alpine grasslands. In addition, because the results of the present study come fromshort term(6–8 years) grazing exclusion, it is still uncertain whether these improvements will be continuable if grazing exclusion is continuously implemented. Therefore, the assessments of the ecological effects of the grazing exclusion management strategy on degraded alpine grasslands in Tibet still need long termcontinued research.
收录类别	SCI
语种	英语
WOS记录号	WOS:000357131000004
内容类型	期刊论文
源URL	[http://ir.imde.ac.cn/handle/131551/13972]
专题	成都山地灾害与环境研究所_山地表生过程与生态调控重点实验室
作者单位	Key Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Institute of Mountain Hazards & Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Yan Yan,Xuyang Lu. Is grazing exclusion effective in restoring vegetation in degraded alpine grasslands in Tibet, China?[J]. PeerJ,2015,3:e1020.
APA	Yan Yan,&Xuyang Lu.(2015).Is grazing exclusion effective in restoring vegetation in degraded alpine grasslands in Tibet, China?.PeerJ,3,e1020.
MLA	Yan Yan,et al."Is grazing exclusion effective in restoring vegetation in degraded alpine grasslands in Tibet, China?".PeerJ 3(2015):e1020.