Cumulative effects of 20-year exclusion of livestock grazing on above- and belowground biomass of typical steppe communities in arid areas of the Loess Plateau, China

J. Cheng, G.L. Wu, L.P. Zhao, Y. Li, W. Li and J.M. Cheng
Additional contact information
J. Cheng: State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, P.R. China
G.L. Wu: State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, P.R. China
L.P. Zhao: State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, P.R. China
Y. Li: State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, P.R. China
W. Li: State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, P.R. China
J.M. Cheng: State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, P.R. China

Plant, Soil and Environment, 2011, vol. 57, issue 1, 40-44

Abstract: Overgrazing affects typical steppe community in ways similar to grasslands in other areas. Exclusion of livestock grazing is one of the main management practices used to protect grasslands. However, it is not known if long-term exclusion of livestock grazing has positive effect on above- and belowground community properties in typical steppe of the Loess Plateau. We studied the long-term (20-year) cumulative effects of exclusion of livestock grazing on above- and belowground community properties compared with that before exclusion of livestock grazing in a typical steppe of the Loess Plateau, NW China. Our results show that twenty-year exclusion of livestock grazing significantly increased above- and belowground biomass, species richness, cover and height for five different communities. Most of belowground biomass was in the 0-20 cm horizon and grazing exclusion increased biomass especially at the depth of 0-10 cm. Our study suggests that long-term exclusion of livestock grazing can greatly improve community properties of typical steppe in the Loess Plateau.

Keywords: grazing exclusion; underground biomass; arid grasslands; the Loess Hilly-Gully Region (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/153/2010-PSE.html (text/html)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/153/2010-PSE.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlpse:v:57:y:2011:i:1:id:153-2010-pse

DOI: 10.17221/153/2010-PSE

Access Statistics for this article

Plant, Soil and Environment is currently edited by Kateřina Součková

More articles in Plant, Soil and Environment from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().