Response characteristics of grassland ecosystem biomass to grazing intensity in China

NWIPB OpenIR

	Response characteristics of grassland ecosystem biomass to grazing intensity in China
	Wang, Yunying; Pei, Weiwei; Cao, Guangmin; Guo, Xiaowei; Du, Yangong
	2021
发表期刊	GRASSLAND SCIENCE
摘要	Grassland ecosystem functions are affected to a large extent by grazing activities. However, owing to the associated spatial heterogeneity, the influence of grazing intensity on grassland ecosystem biomass and the underlying mechanisms remains unclear. In this study, we analyzed data from 335 field data to clarify the response of grassland ecosystem biomass to grazing activities in China. We established that the size of the priming effect of grazing activities on total biomass, aboveground biomass and belowground biomass is -0.25 +/- 0.09 (95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.42 to -0.07), -0.47 +/- 0.05 (-0.57 to -0.37) and -0.18 +/- 0.04 (-0.29 to -0.10), respectively. Grazing was found to significantly reduce both the biomass of grassland ecosystems (p < 0.01) and the average effect value of temperate, meadow and desert steppes with respect to vegetation type (p < 0.05). The descending order of the effects of grazing intensity on biomass was heavy, light and moderate, with light and heavy grazing significantly reducing grassland biomass (p < 0.01), whereas moderate grazing made a comparatively smaller contribution. Furthermore, explained heterogeneity analysis revealed that soil water content was positively associated with the effect size, and path analysis indicated that soil bulk density, precipitation and average annual temperature have a significant direct influence on the effect value (p < 0.05). Given the minimal impact of moderate grazing on biomass, we suggest that stocking at moderate densities could represent an effective approach for restoring degraded grasslands. Moreover, increasing soil water content could contribute to effectively reducing grazing-related damage to the biomass of grassland ecosystems.
关键词	biomass effect size grazing activity meta-analysis
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://210.75.249.4/handle/363003/60720
专题	中国科学院西北高原生物研究所
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Wang, Yunying,Pei, Weiwei,Cao, Guangmin,et al. Response characteristics of grassland ecosystem biomass to grazing intensity in China[J]. GRASSLAND SCIENCE,2021.
APA	Wang, Yunying,Pei, Weiwei,Cao, Guangmin,Guo, Xiaowei,&Du, Yangong.(2021).Response characteristics of grassland ecosystem biomass to grazing intensity in China.GRASSLAND SCIENCE.
MLA	Wang, Yunying,et al."Response characteristics of grassland ecosystem biomass to grazing intensity in China".GRASSLAND SCIENCE (2021).