Welcome to Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology! Today is Share:

Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Impacts of Ochotona pallasi disturbance on alpine grassland community characteristics.

ZHAO Guo-qin1, LI Guang-yong1, MA Wen-hu2, ZHAO Dian-zhi3, LI Xiao-yan1,4   

  1. (1College of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; 2Haiyan Forestry and Environmental Protection Bureau, Haiyan 812200, Qinghai, China; 3Sanjiaocheng Sheep Breeding Farm, Gangcha 812300, Qinghai, China; 4State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Process and Resource Ecology, Beijing 100875, China)
  • Online:2013-08-18 Published:2013-08-18

Abstract: Plateau pika is the main fossorial mammal in the alpine grassland in Qinghai Lake Watershed of Northwest China. Based on the field investigation data from 18 alpine grassland quadrats in the Watershed, and by using redundancy analysis (RDA) and the surface fitting offered by ‘RVegan’, the disturbance intensity of plateau pika (Ochotona pallasi) was classified as four levels. In order to explore the impacts of plateau pika disturbance on the alpine grassland ecosystem and its grazing quality, the community characteristics under different disturbance intensities by plateau pika were analyzed, and a conceptual model about the alpine grassland community succession was proposed. The results showed that with the increase of the disturbance intensity, the dominant species changed from Juncus roemerianus to Poa pratensis and Laux maritima. When the disturbance was small, the community had high quantitative values of coverage, aboveground biomass, biodiversity, and species richness, but the proportion of weeds was also high. When the disturbance was large, the quantitative values were the lowest, while the proportion of weeds was the highest. When the disturbance was moderate, the community had relatively high quantitative values, and the proportion of grasses and sedges was the highest. It was concluded that the community’s characteristic values under low plateau pika disturbance intensity were high but the grazing quality was low, while high disturbance intensity resulted in the grassland degradation. Therefore, the disturbance intensity in the threshold could maintain the stability of alpine grassland ecosystem and improve its grazing quality.