Vegetation Response to Goats Grazing Intensity in Semiarid Hilly Grassland of the Loess Plateau, Lanzhou, China

Hua Cheng, Baocheng Jin, Kai Luo, Jiuying Pei, Xueli Zhang, Yonghong Zhang, Jiaqi Tang, Qin Yang and Guojun Sun
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Hua Cheng: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystem, Institute of Arid Agroecology, and School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Baocheng Jin: College of Animal Science, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
Kai Luo: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystem, Institute of Arid Agroecology, and School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Jiuying Pei: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystem, Institute of Arid Agroecology, and School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Xueli Zhang: College of Water Conservancy Science & Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Yonghong Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystem, Institute of Arid Agroecology, and School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Jiaqi Tang: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystem, Institute of Arid Agroecology, and School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Qin Yang: College of Animal Science, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
Guojun Sun: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystem, Institute of Arid Agroecology, and School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: Quantitatively estimating the grazing intensity (GI) effects on vegetation in semiarid hilly grassland of the Loess Plateau can help to develop safe utilization levels for natural grasslands, which is a necessity of maintaining livestock production and sustainable development of grasslands. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), field vegetation data, and 181 days (one goat per day) of GPS tracking were combined to quantify the spatial pattern of GI, and its effects on the vegetation community structure. The spatial distribution of GI was uneven, with a mean value of 0.50 goats/ha, and 95% of the study area had less than 1.30 goats/ha. The areas with utilization rates of rangeland (July) lower than 45% and 20% made up about 95% and 60% of the study area, respectively. Grazing significantly reduced monthly aboveground biomass, but the grazing effects on plant growth rate were complex across the different plant growth stages. Grazing impaired plant growth in general, but the intermediate GI appeared to facilitate plant growth rate at the end of the growing seasons. Grazing had minimal relationship with vegetation community structure characteristics, though Importance Value of forbs increased with increasing GI. Flexibility in the number of goats and conservatively defining utilization rate, according to the inter-annual variation of utilization biomass, would be beneficial to achieve ecologically healthy and economically sustainable GI.

Keywords: GPS; grazing management; livestock; utilization rate; vegetation community structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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