Abstract
Overgrazing significantly affects alpine meadows in ways similar to grasslands in other areas. Fencing to exclude grazers is one of the main management practices used to protect alpine meadows. However, it is not known if fencing can improve soil properties and soil organic carbon storage by restraining grazing in alpine meadows. We studied the long-term (nine-year) effects of fencing on soil properties, soil organic carbon and nitrogen storage compared with continued grazing in an alpine swamp meadow of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, NW China. Our results showed that fencing significantly improved vegetation cover and aboveground biomass. There were significant effects of fencing on pH value, soil bulk density, and soil moisture. Long-term fencing favored the increase of soil total nitrogen, soil organic matter, soil organic carbon, soil microbial biomass carbon and soil carbon storage compared with grazed meadows. Our study suggests that long-term fencing to prevent disturbance could greatly affect soil organic carbon and nitrogen storage with regard to grazed meadows. Therefore, it is apparent from this study that fencing is an effective restoration approach of with regard to the soil’s storage ability for carbon and nitrogen in alpine meadow of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Gerlinde De Deyn and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments on this manuscript and thank Prof. Robin Pakeman for supporting in English writing revision and thank colleagues of Maqu Grassland Station for valuable assistance with field work. The study was supported by Projects of Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC30900177) and Projects to Dr. Wu Gao-Lin from West Light Foundation of CAS (2009), the frontier research fund (10502-Q5) from State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau of ISWC of CAS, and NWSUAF (22050205) China and Special Research Funds for Public Service of Ministry of Agriculture China (200903060).
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Wu, GL., Liu, ZH., Zhang, L. et al. Long-term fencing improved soil properties and soil organic carbon storage in an alpine swamp meadow of western China. Plant Soil 332, 331–337 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0299-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0299-0