EFFECTS OF GRAZING EXCLUSION BY FENCE ON VEGETATION CHARACTERISTICS AND COMMUNITY DIVERSITY OF MONGOLIAN GRASSLANDS

Grazing exclusion by fence was often used in the management of grassland ecosystems. However, the direction and the strength of effects of grazing exclusion on grassland vegetation characteristics and community diversity are currently disputable. In addition, little research was conducted on the effects of grazing exclusion on vegetation phenology. In this study, we aim to determine the effects of grazing exclusion on vegetation characteristics, community diversity and vegetation phenological periods. For this, we performed a fencing experiment in three grassland types in Mongolia. Each grassland type was set by two treatments: grazing exclusion and freely grazing. We found that grazing exclusion generally increased vegetation height regardless of grassland type. In contrast, variations of vegetation cover caused by grazing exclusion were not consistent in three grassland types. Grazing exclusion decreased species richness and Shannon diversity. However, community evenness varied little without grazing disturbances. Grazing exclusion advanced the vegetation phenological periods in three grassland types. This study fills the knowledge gap of the effects of grazing exclusion on vegetation characteristics, community diversity and vegetation phenological development in Mongolian grasslands. Other management strategies like rotational grazing and reseeding are encouraged to be used in tandem with grazing exclusion to restore Mongolian rangelands.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  Applied Ecology and Environmental Research

• Publication date

  Unknown publication date

• Fields of study

  Geography, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.15666/aeer/1805_69957009
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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