title: Soil properties and species composition under different grazing intensity in an alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China.
abstract: As the main form of land use and human disturbance of grassland, livestock grazing has great influences on the soil resources and plant communities. This study observed the variation of soil properties and community characteristics of four treatments of different grazing intensity (no grazing, UG; light grazing, LG; moderate grazing, MG; and heavy grazing, HG) in an alpine meadow of Sichuan Province on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that grazing increased the pH, soil bulk density (BD), and contents of total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN), and the BD increased while the others decreased with the grazing intensity. At the community level, with the increase of the grazing intensity, the vegetation coverage (R2= 0.61, P < 0.001), mean height of community (R2= 0.37, P < 0.001), aboveground biomass (R2= 0.54, P < 0.001), litter biomass (R2= 0.84, P < 0.001), and percentage of aboveground biomass of palatable grasses to total biomass (R2= 0.74, P < 0.001) significantly decreased, while the belowground biomass (R2= 0.72, P < 0.001) and the root/shoot (R/S) ratio (R2= 0.65, P < 0.001) increased. The species richness was the greatest at LG and the total biomass at UG. With grazing, the dominant species of the plant community shifted from palatable grasses (Gramineae and Cyperaceae) to unpalatable grasses (Compositae and Ranunculaceae). Based on the results, LG may be the optimal grassland management mode to be used in the long time in the alpine meadow of the Tibetan Plateau.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People's Republic of China.|CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhen'an
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Chinese Journal of Applied and Environmental Biology, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People's Republic of China.|CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yingyi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People's Republic of China.|CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People's Republic of China.|CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Erxiong
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yixin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qiuan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People's Republic of China.|Center of CEE/ESCER Biology Science Department, University of Quebec at Montreal, C3H3P8, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Changhui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, People's Republic of China. chenhuai@cib.ac.cn.|CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People's Republic of China. chenhuai@cib.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Huai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D018533:Biomass; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis; D002681:China; D065948:Grassland; D060434:Herbivory; D058751:Livestock; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D006109:Poaceae / Q000254:growth & development*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D002244:Carbon; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: Biomass; Grazing intensity; Soil properties; Species composition