Impact of soil degradation on plant communities in an overgrazed Tibetan alpine meadow
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Keywords:
Overgrazing
Grassland Degradation
Soil carbon
This paper tries to qualitatively analyze land use and cover changes (LUCC) and accompanied soil degradation in China, the data of World Atlas of Agriculture in 1969, Land Cover Data of Asia in 1992 and Global Assessment of Human Induced Soil Degradation in 1992, etc. have been used. From 1960' s to 1990's, the area of forestland had increased, arable land and paddy as well as grassland had significantly decreased in China. The major type of soil degradation is due to water erosion, which is widely distributed especially in Loess Plateau and in Southeast and Southwest China, this happened in forestland, grassland and arable land and mainly resulted from deforestation. The secondary type is wind erosion, which is mainly distributed in Northwest China, it happened in arable land and grassland and was caused by overgrazing. Chemical deterioration is distributed in North and Northwest China, which happened in paddy, arable land and grassland. Physical deterioration only concentrated in local area in North China, it happened in arable and paddy. Chemical and physical deteriora-tion mainly resulted from unreasonable activity. Because of different human activities, different LUCC and different natural conditions, the types and strength of soil degradation can be different.
Arable land
Overgrazing
Deforestation
Grassland Degradation
Land Cover
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Overgrazing,which is defined based on a simple formulaic statement that total livestock population exceeds the carrying capacity of grassland,has been an acknowledged reason for grassland degradation in China.Many projects have been implemented to reduce livestock population and increase forage plantation to restore degraded grassland.However,the situation of holistic degradation of grassland in China has not been changed.Based on the analysis of current mode of grassland management and livestock distribution at village scale by using case study data,the research showed that it is impossible to find proper countermeasures for grassland degradation without analyzing deeply in specific spatial-temporal scales.Besides current explanation for grassland degradation merely emphasize the too many livestock population,which is called as quantitative overgrazing in this paper,the change in livestock distribution caused by the changes in property rights has played an important role in degradation,which is defined as distributed overgrazing.
Overgrazing
Grassland Degradation
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Based on TM images available of degrading grassland,grassland degradation surveys,and socio-economic statistic,efforts were made to study qualitatively and quantitatively human factors in grassland degradation in Maqu County,South Gansu.The results of qualitative analysis showed that grassland degradation was closely related to population growth,economic development,overgrazing,herdsmen management activities,low efficiency of the operation,and so on,and these factors strongly affected grassland degradation in Maqu.Quantitative analysis was intended to verify the findings of qualitative analysis.Its results revealed that the grassland degradation in Mqqu was mainly attributed to the following three factors,i.e.population and economic development,overgrazing,and readjustment of the animal husbandry structure.However,they vary in the effect.
Overgrazing
Grassland Degradation
Animal Husbandry
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This paper tries to qualitatively analyze land use and cover changes (LUCC) and accompanied soil degradation in China, the data of World Atlas of Agriculture in 1969, Land Cover Data of Asia in 1992 and Global Assessment of Human Induced Soil Degradation in 1992, etc. have been used. From 1960' s to 1990's, the area of forestland had increased, ara-ble land and paddy as well as grassland had significantly decreased in China. The major type of soil degradation is due to wa-ter erosion, which is widely distributed especially in Loess Plateau and in Southeast and Southwest China, this happened in forestland, grassland and arable land and mainly resulted from deforestation. The secondary type is wind erosion, which is mainly distributed in Northwest China, it happened in arable land and grassland and was caused by overgrazing. Chemical deterioration is distributed in North and Northwest China, which happened in paddy, arable land and grassland. Physical de-terioration only concentrated in local area in North China, it happened in arable and paddy. Chemical and physical deteriora-tion mainly resulted from unreasonable activity. Because of different human activities, different LUCC and different natural conditions, the types and strength of soil degradation can be different.x
Overgrazing
Arable land
Deforestation
Grassland Degradation
Land Cover
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Grassland degeneration is a serious problem in Xinjiang,and has become a main obstacle in the development of pastoral animal husbandry.Through grassland degradation factor evaluation system and gray relational analysis,we found that the main factor of grassland degeneration is the overgrazing rate.The overgrazing activity by pastoralists is the major cause of the deterioration of the grassland ecological environment.The practical evidence for formulating the policy to protect grassland.was proposed in this paper.
Overgrazing
Grassland Degradation
Pastoralism
Animal Husbandry
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Overgrazing
Grassland Degradation
Fencing
Soil carbon
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The source water region of the Yellow River covers southern part of Qinghai province and part of southern Gansu province,China,its ecological and environmental conditions have essential impacts on the downstream social economics and water supplies,and the stock raising has high proportional contributions to the local economics.However,this region is currently suffering from serious grassland degradation,and the capacity for livestock feeding is decreasing dramatically.By using questionnaire in this survey analysis,the causes for the grassland degradation had been investigated in the source water region of the Yellow River.The results indicated that the natural causes for grassland degradation are small.While,because of the restriction of local cultures,religion,education and economic structure,the herdsmen expect to increase their income by overgrazing after carrying out the limited grazing in a fixed and fenced area policy,and the over-grazing is main cause of the grassland degradation.The conflict between the administration policy and local social economical development is one of the main factors affecting the degradation of the grassland.
Overgrazing
Grassland Degradation
Environmental degradation
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The climatic effects of LUCC have been a focus of current researches on global climate change. The objective of this study is to investigate climatic effects of grassland degradation in Northwest China. Based on the stimulation of the conversion from grassland to other land use types during the next 30 years, the potential effects of grassland degradation on regional climate in the overgrazing area of Northwest China from 2010 to 2040 have been explored with Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF). The analysis results show that grassland will mainly convert into barren land, croplands, and urban land, which accounts for 42%, 48%, and 10% of the total converted grassland area, respectively. The simulation results indicate that the WRF model is appropriate for the simulation of the impact of grassland degradation on climate change. The grassland degradation during the next 30 years will result in the decrease of latent heat flux, which will further lead to the increase of temperature in summer, with an increment of 0.4–1.2°C, and the decrease of temperature in winter, with a decrement of 0.2°C. In addition, grassland degradation will cause the decrease of precipitation in both summer and winter, with a decrement of 4–20 mm.
Grassland Degradation
Overgrazing
Grassland ecosystem
Homogenization
Sink (geography)
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The principal factors causing Qinghai-Tibet Plateau grassland degradation includes climate,wild life and human activities.Temperature and precipitation are the main elements within climatic.Short term climatic change is not the main factor inducing grassland degradation.From long run,interaction between climate change and grassland degradation can induce the deterioration of grassland ecological system.Small mammals are the principal element affecting grassland,and their damage mainly depend on the population densities.The impact of large,wild herbivores on grassland should not be ignored.Livestock overgrazing is another main factor,to some extent,grazing intensity directly determines the degree of grassland degradation.Although the main causes of grassland degradation vary across different regions,the main causes of grassland degradation in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are overgrazing and population eruptions of small mammals.Things should be concerned in grassland rehabilitation and management were presented in allusion to the cause of degradation.
Overgrazing
Grassland Degradation
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Grassland covers 54% of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and suffered overgrazing and degradation problems during past decades. To alleviate these problems, a series of policy measures have been implemented during recent two decades and inevitably caused changes of the grassland. To this end, this study quantitatively analyzed the grassland changes and the effects of reduced grazing intensity, and identified the hot plots of grassland degradation in the TP during 2000–2019. The grassland status was indicated by the Fractional Vegetation Cover in the green grass period (GP), i.e., FVCGP, and its changes and spatial variations were detected by analyzing the FVCGP trends and their distribution, using the Mann–Kendal, Sen’s Slope, and ArcGIS buffering methods, and data of the MOD13Q1 Collection 6 products and other sources. The results showed that 62.12% of the grasslands were significantly increased in the FVCGP, and 28.34% had no apparent changes. The remaining 9.54% of the grassland significantly decreased in the FVCGP, mainly occurring in the areas nearby roads, rivers, and lakes, and distributed mostly in a point pattern. Of the total FVCGP decreased grassland area, 27.03% was clustered and identified as the hot plots of grassland degradation in six main regions. Decreased grazing intensity and increased precipitation contributed to the increase of grassland FVC in the TP, while local overgrazing could be the main cause of the FVC decrease. To strength the grassland restoration in the TP, the government supports and supervision should be enhanced to further mitigate the grassland pressure of animal grazing, particularly in the hot plot areas of degradation.
Overgrazing
Grassland Degradation
Grazing pressure
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