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Natural recovery of steppe vegetation on vehicle tracks in central Mongolia

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Abstract

Steppe desertification due to vehicle travel is a severe environmental issue in Mongolia. We studied natural vegetation recovery on abandoned vehicle tracks in the central Mongolia steppe through vegetation surveys and stable isotopic techniques. The following issues were addressed: (i) invasion of pioneering plant species, (ii) alteration of soil surface features, and (iii) contribution of revegetated plants to soil organic matter (SOM). The pioneering plant species that firstly invaded the abandoned tracks are those that could germinate, root and survive in the compacted track surface.Salsola collina is one of these candidate plants. Due to revegetation, soil surface hardness was reduced. With the improvement of surface microenvironmental conditions, other plants began to colonize and establish; concomitantly species richness and species diversity increased. Carbon isotope ratios of SOM at the top surface layer indicated that C4-derived carbon contributed more to SOM in the early phase of recovery and decreased with further recovery

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Japan Science and Technology Agency, 332-0012, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan

    Sheng-Gong Li

  2. Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 305-8572, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Maki Tsujimura & Michiaki Sugita

  3. Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, 060-0810, Sapporo Hokkaido, Japan

    Atsuko Sugimoto

  4. Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, Khudaldaany Gudamj-5, 210646, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

    Gombo Davaa

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  1. Sheng-Gong Li
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  2. Maki Tsujimura
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  3. Atsuko Sugimoto
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  4. Gombo Davaa
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  5. Michiaki Sugita
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Correspondence to Sheng-Gong Li.

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Li, SG., Tsujimura, M., Sugimoto, A. et al. Natural recovery of steppe vegetation on vehicle tracks in central Mongolia. J. Biosci. 31, 85–93 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02705239

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02705239

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