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Grazing Exclusion, a Choice between Biomass Growth and Species Diversity Maintenance in Beijing—Tianjin Sand Source Control Project

Author

Listed:
  • Yuzhe Li

    (Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

  • Jiangwen Fan

    (Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

  • Hailing Yu

    (School of Geography, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China)

Abstract

Grasslands in northern China form an important ecological barrier that prevents and controls desertification. The Beijing–Tianjin Sand Source Control (BTSSC) Project has been implemented to restore grassland in order to control sand sourced pollution. This study aimed to understand the impacts of four applied restoration practices on the productivity, composition, and species diversity of vegetation communities in the BTSSC Project. The results indicated the following: (1) All the restoration practices tended to increase the height and cover of communities, and the effect was most obvious where grazing was excluded; (2) total biomass (87%), above-ground biomass (164%) and below-ground biomass (58%) only increased consistently when grazing was excluded from the steppe; (3) fenced and grazing exclusion practice significantly increased the abundance of species in communities, but all the practices tended to decrease the evenness of species; and, (4) the correlation analysis revealed that the Shannon–Wiener diversity index, and Pielou evenness index, showed significant negative correlations with the above-ground biomass of grassland communities after restoration, while no significant relationships were shown in reference plots. Our comparison of applied practices in the BTSSC project revealed that grazing exclusion might be a high priority for more successful restoration in this region.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuzhe Li & Jiangwen Fan & Hailing Yu, 2019. "Grazing Exclusion, a Choice between Biomass Growth and Species Diversity Maintenance in Beijing—Tianjin Sand Source Control Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:7:p:1941-:d:219124
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Yuzhe Li & Jiangwen Fan & Zhongmin Hu, 2018. "Comparison of Carbon-Use Efficiency Among Different Land-Use Patterns of the Temperate Steppe in the Northern China Pastoral Farming Ecotone," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, February.
    2. J. Emmett Duffy & Casey M. Godwin & Bradley J. Cardinale, 2017. "Biodiversity effects in the wild are common and as strong as key drivers of productivity," Nature, Nature, vol. 549(7671), pages 261-264, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Xuan Wei & Lihua Zhou & Guojing Yang & Ya Wang & Yong Chen, 2020. "Assessing the Effects of Desertification Control Projects from the Farmers’ Perspective: A Case Study of Yanchi County, Northern China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-15, February.
    2. Pengyao Qin & Bin Sun & Zengyuan Li & Zhihai Gao & Yifu Li & Ziyu Yan & Ting Gao, 2021. "Estimation of Grassland Carrying Capacity by Applying High Spatiotemporal Remote Sensing Techniques in Zhenglan Banner, Inner Mongolia, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, March.

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