Abstract Grazing exclusion (GE) is a key national ecological restoration project widely applied to rehabilitate degraded grasslands. To date, there have been many debates on the effectiveness of GE for… Click to show full abstract
Abstract Grazing exclusion (GE) is a key national ecological restoration project widely applied to rehabilitate degraded grasslands. To date, there have been many debates on the effectiveness of GE for grassland recovery, and it is still poorly understood how degraded alpine meadows in the semi-humid area with relative rich rainfall in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau respond to GE with different durations. We selected a chronosequence of grazing-excluded alpine meadows to examine the dynamics of grassland functions. The results showed that the dominant functional group shifted from forbs to graminoids after 8 to 10 years GE and then returned to forbs. The plant population density increased significantly with GE time (P
Journal Title: Catena
Year Published: 2021
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