Li Wen, Su Tingting, Shen Yan, Ma Hongbin, Zhou Yao, Lu Qi, Wang Guohui, Liu Zhuo, Li Jianping
Key Laboratory for Model Innovation in Forage Production Efficiency Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, P.R. China Ningxia University Yinchuan China.
Ningxia Grassland and Animal Husbandry Engineering Technology Research Center Ningxia University Yinchuan China.
Ecol Evol. 2023 Jan 19;13(1):e9748. doi: 10.1002/ece3.9748. eCollection 2023 Jan.
Grazing is the basic way of grassland utilization, and reasonable grazing is an important way to maintain the health of the grassland ecosystem. However, the traditional grazing time in warming seasons is negative for sustainable desert steppe ecosystem. Determining reasonable grassland grazing methods is to remain a critical issue for the ecological conservation and rational utilization of desert steppe. Therefore, our objectives were to explore the effects of warming seasonal rotation grazing on the species diversity and functional diversity of grassland plants and to reveal controlling factors of plant community diversity. The warm-season rotational grazing modes included traditional time of grazing (FG), delayed start of grazing (YG), early end of grazing (TG), delayed start early end of grazing (YT), and enclosed steppe (CK). The results showed that the important value of of the gramineae and of the leguminosae in YG increased by 12.10%-120.66% and 23.57%-34.25% than other treatments (CK, FG, TG, and YT), respectively. Therefore, the YG treatment has more advantages on the IV of of the gramineae and of the leguminosae. Warming seasonal rotational grazing (FG, YG, TG, and YT) significantly increased the important value of by 51.43%-79.64% compared with CK ( < .05). Compared with CK, FG and YG promoted the growth of gramineae and appropriately reduced the proportion of forbs. There was no significant difference in the Shannon-Wiener index between grazing treatments and CK, while the Shannon-Wiener index in YT increased by 21.43% and 15.71% compared with FG and YG ( < .05). The functional richness index in FG and YG significantly decreased by 19.05%-23.81% compared with CK and TG ( < .05). The results of the redundancy analysis showed that the diversity of plant communities was mainly affected by soil-available nitrogen. These observations indicated that delayed start of grazing can improve the diversity of plant communities by increasing the important value of dominant plants in the community and promoting the growth of gramineous and leguminous plants, thereby optimizing the composition of community structure. Our findings can provide a theoretical basis for formulating a reasonable and scientific grazing period in desert steppe.
放牧是草地利用的基本方式，合理放牧是维持草地生态系统健康的重要途径。然而，暖季传统放牧时间对荒漠草原生态系统的可持续性不利。确定合理的草地放牧方式仍是荒漠草原生态保护与合理利用的关键问题。因此，我们的目标是探讨暖季轮牧对草地植物物种多样性和功能多样性的影响，并揭示植物群落多样性的控制因素。暖季轮牧模式包括传统放牧时间（FG）、推迟放牧开始时间（YG）、提前结束放牧时间（TG）、推迟开始并提前结束放牧时间（YT）以及围封禁牧草原（CK）。结果表明，YG处理中禾本科和豆科的重要值分别比其他处理（CK、FG、TG和YT）增加了12.10% - 120.66%和23.57% - 34.25%。因此，YG处理在禾本科和豆科的重要值方面具有更多优势。与CK相比，暖季轮牧（FG、YG、TG和YT）显著增加了优势种的重要值，增幅为51.43% - 79.64%（P < 0.05）。与CK相比，FG和YG促进了禾本科植物的生长，并适当降低了杂类草的比例。放牧处理与CK之间的香农 - 维纳指数无显著差异，而YT处理的香农 - 维纳指数与FG和YG相比分别增加了21.43%和15.71%（P < 0.05）。与CK和TG相比，FG和YG处理的功能丰富度指数显著降低，降幅为19.05% - 23.81%（P < 0.05）。冗余分析结果表明，植物群落多样性主要受土壤有效氮的影响。这些观察结果表明，推迟放牧开始时间可以通过增加群落中优势植物的重要值和促进禾本科与豆科植物的生长来提高植物群落的多样性，从而优化群落结构组成。我们的研究结果可为制定荒漠草原合理科学的放牧时期提供理论依据。
