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Bo Shen, Qing-qing Ma, Yun-xiang Cheng, Sheng-hua Chang, Yue Li, Jin-mei Guo, Fu-jiang Hou. Effect of grazing systems on soil seedbank:A case study of an alpine meadow in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau[J]. Pratacultural Science, 2018, 12(4): 791-799. DOI: 10.11829/j.issn.1001-0629.2017-0271
Citation: Bo Shen, Qing-qing Ma, Yun-xiang Cheng, Sheng-hua Chang, Yue Li, Jin-mei Guo, Fu-jiang Hou. Effect of grazing systems on soil seedbank:A case study of an alpine meadow in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau[J]. Pratacultural Science, 2018, 12(4): 791-799. DOI: 10.11829/j.issn.1001-0629.2017-0271

Effect of grazing systems on soil seedbank:A case study of an alpine meadow in the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

  • In order to understand the response of soil seed banks to different grazing regimes, we investigated the seed density and vertical distribution of soil seed banks, and the relationship between soil seed banks and the aboveground vegetation change in the warm- and cold-season pasture of an alpine meadow in the Maqu area of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. The results showed the following: 1) In the soil seed bank of the warm-season pasture, there were 12 species subjected to light grazing, with seed density 2 307.66 seed·m-2; there were six species subjected to severe grazing, with seed density 1 065.08 seed·m-2; there were five species subjected to restricted grazing, with seed density 828.38 seed·m-2; the species richness and density of lightly grazed species were significantly higher than those of heavily grazed species. 2) In the cold-season pasture, there were 12 species subjected to light grazing, with seed density 3 786.88 seed·m-2; there were eight species subjected to severe grazing, with seed density 621.15 seed·m-2; there were five species subjected to restricted grazing, with seed density 532.53 seed·m-2. The amount of light grazing was less than that of heavy grazing. 3) The Shannon-Wiener, Pielow, Simpson and Margarlef indices of the soil seed bank under light grazing were higher than those under heavy grazing conditions. Both in warm- and cold-season pastures, the similarities between the soil seed bank and aboveground vegetation under different grazing intensities were lower than 0.3. 4) The seeds were mainly concentrated in the shallow soil layer (0-5 cm), and the seed density decreased rapidly with an increase in soil depth.
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