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Warm- and cold- season grazing affect plant diversity and soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration differently in Tibetan alpine swamp meadows

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Abstract

Background and aims

Seasonal grazing is a traditional grassland management practice in alpine swamp meadows on the Tibetan Plateau, but little information is available on the interactions between plant diversity and soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration in warm- and cold- season grazed alpine swamp meadows.

Methods

A multisite survey was conducted to investigate the plant characteristics and soil properties of Tibetan alpine swamp meadows under warm-season grazing (WG) and cold-season grazing (CG).

Results

Our study showed that plant biomass, litter mass, soil water content (SW), soil available nitrogen, soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were significantly lower in the WG meadows than in the CG meadows (P < 0.05). However, plant diversity, species richness and the evenness index tended to increase in the WG meadows. Soil C and N storage were significantly lower in the WG meadows than in the CG meadows (P < 0.01). Grazing-induced changes in SW, plant diversity, plant biomass and litter mass were the major factors resulting in the decrease in soil C and N storage.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that warm-season grazing is beneficial for species diversity conservation, whereas cold-season grazing is suitable for soil C and N sequestration in alpine swamp meadows. Grazing-induced changes in litter mass greatly contributed to variations in plant diversity and soil C and N storage. In view of the accelerated vegetation and soil degradation in alpine grasslands, periodic warm- and cold-season grazing strategies should be considered to maintain alpine swamp meadow sustainability.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mr. Zhao Z and Mr. Ping D with the field works. This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41701276 and 91837312), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (2019QZKK0106), the National Key Research and Development Project of China (2019YFC0507702), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Southwest Minzu University (2020NQN28) and a grant from State Key Laboratory of Hulless Barley and Yak Germplasm Resources and Genetic Improvement (XZNKY-2020-C-007 K04).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Lihua Tian

  2. State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystem, Institute of Innovation Ecology & College of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Yanfu Bai, Weiwei Wang & Jingxue Zhao

  3. State Key Laboratory of Hulless Barley and Yak Germplasm Resources and Genetic Improvement, Lhasa, 850002, China

    Guangpeng Qu & Jingxue Zhao

  4. Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Zhaoheng Deng

  5. Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road., Haidian District, Beijing, 100871, China

    Ruicheng Li & Jingxue Zhao

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  1. Lihua Tian
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Correspondence to Jingxue Zhao.

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Tian, L., Bai, Y., Wang, W. et al. Warm- and cold- season grazing affect plant diversity and soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration differently in Tibetan alpine swamp meadows. Plant Soil 458, 151–164 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04573-6

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