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Divergent Changes in Plant Community Composition under 3-Decade Grazing Exclusion in Continental Steppe

An understanding of the factors controlling plant community composition will allow improved prediction of the responses of plant communities to natural and anthropogenic environmental change. Using monitoring data from 1980 to 2009, we quantified the changes in community composition in Leymus chinen...

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Autores principales: He, Nianpeng, Han, Xingguo, Yu, Guirui, Chen, Quansheng
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3206806/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22073169
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026506
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author He, Nianpeng
Han, Xingguo
Yu, Guirui
Chen, Quansheng
author_facet He, Nianpeng
Han, Xingguo
Yu, Guirui
Chen, Quansheng
author_sort He, Nianpeng
collection PubMed
description An understanding of the factors controlling plant community composition will allow improved prediction of the responses of plant communities to natural and anthropogenic environmental change. Using monitoring data from 1980 to 2009, we quantified the changes in community composition in Leymus chinensis and Stipa grandis dominated grasslands in Inner Mongolia under long-term grazing-exclusion and free-grazing conditions, respectively. We demonstrated that the practice of long-term grazing exclusion has significant effects on the heterogeneity, the dominant species, and the community composition in the two grasslands. The community composition of L. chinensis and S. grandis grasslands exhibited directional changes with time under long-term grazing exclusion. Under free grazing, the L. chinensis community changed directionally with time, but the pattern of change was stochastic in the S. grandis community. We attributed the divergent responses to long-term grazing exclusion in the S. grandis and L. chinensis grasslands to litter accumulation and changes in the microenvironment after grazing exclusion, which collectively altered the growth and regeneration of the dominant species. The changes in the grazed grasslands were primarily determined by the selective feeding of sheep during long-term heavy grazing. Overall, the responses of the community composition of the Inner Mongolian grasslands to long-term grazing exclusion and heavy grazing were divergent, and depended primarily on the grassland type. Our findings provide new insights into the role of grazing in the maintenance of community structure and function and therefore have important implications for grassland management.
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spelling pubmed-32068062011-11-09 Divergent Changes in Plant Community Composition under 3-Decade Grazing Exclusion in Continental Steppe He, Nianpeng Han, Xingguo Yu, Guirui Chen, Quansheng PLoS One Research Article An understanding of the factors controlling plant community composition will allow improved prediction of the responses of plant communities to natural and anthropogenic environmental change. Using monitoring data from 1980 to 2009, we quantified the changes in community composition in Leymus chinensis and Stipa grandis dominated grasslands in Inner Mongolia under long-term grazing-exclusion and free-grazing conditions, respectively. We demonstrated that the practice of long-term grazing exclusion has significant effects on the heterogeneity, the dominant species, and the community composition in the two grasslands. The community composition of L. chinensis and S. grandis grasslands exhibited directional changes with time under long-term grazing exclusion. Under free grazing, the L. chinensis community changed directionally with time, but the pattern of change was stochastic in the S. grandis community. We attributed the divergent responses to long-term grazing exclusion in the S. grandis and L. chinensis grasslands to litter accumulation and changes in the microenvironment after grazing exclusion, which collectively altered the growth and regeneration of the dominant species. The changes in the grazed grasslands were primarily determined by the selective feeding of sheep during long-term heavy grazing. Overall, the responses of the community composition of the Inner Mongolian grasslands to long-term grazing exclusion and heavy grazing were divergent, and depended primarily on the grassland type. Our findings provide new insights into the role of grazing in the maintenance of community structure and function and therefore have important implications for grassland management. Public Library of Science 2011-11-02 /pmc/articles/PMC3206806/ /pubmed/22073169 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026506 Text en He et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
He, Nianpeng
Han, Xingguo
Yu, Guirui
Chen, Quansheng
Divergent Changes in Plant Community Composition under 3-Decade Grazing Exclusion in Continental Steppe
title Divergent Changes in Plant Community Composition under 3-Decade Grazing Exclusion in Continental Steppe
title_full Divergent Changes in Plant Community Composition under 3-Decade Grazing Exclusion in Continental Steppe
title_fullStr Divergent Changes in Plant Community Composition under 3-Decade Grazing Exclusion in Continental Steppe
title_full_unstemmed Divergent Changes in Plant Community Composition under 3-Decade Grazing Exclusion in Continental Steppe
title_short Divergent Changes in Plant Community Composition under 3-Decade Grazing Exclusion in Continental Steppe
title_sort divergent changes in plant community composition under 3-decade grazing exclusion in continental steppe
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3206806/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22073169
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026506
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AT chenquansheng divergentchangesinplantcommunitycompositionunder3decadegrazingexclusionincontinentalsteppe