Effects of Long-Term Exclosure on Main Plant Functional Groups and Their Biochemical Properties in a Patchily Degraded Alpine Meadow in the Source Zone of the Yellow River, West China

作者：Pengnian Yang, Xilai Li, Chenyi Li, Jing Zhang · 发表于：Agronomy · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3390/agronomy13112781 · 被引用次数：12 · 研究领域：Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology、Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics

This study aimed to understand the response of vegetation community characteristics in the degraded alpine meadow of the Source Zone of the Yellow River to exclosure of various lengths. Artificial fences were erected to prevent livestock grazing and let the degraded meadow recover naturally as a means of restoration. The research focused on a typical degraded alpine meadow in which four plots were fenced off for three periods of 1 year (E1), 4 years (E4), and 10 years (E10), plus a freely grazed plot as the control. The study compared and analyzed the differences in plant community characteristics, carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) reserves, as well as the stoichiometric characteristics of main functional groups in the alpine meadow over different exclosure durations. The results indicated that E10 long-term exclosure significantly increased the aboveground biomass of gramineous plants but reduced the aboveground biomass of miscellaneous grasses. However, when compared to E4 short-term exclosure, E10 resulted in a reduction in the aboveground biomass of Cyperaceae plants. On the other hand, E4 medium-term exclosure significantly increased the aboveground biomass of Gramineae and Cyperaceae. Exclosure significantly increased the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) reserves of the aboveground plant communities. Among these communities, the plant communities in the E10 long-term exclosure had the highest N and P reserves. However, this exclosure length also led to a signi...