Abstract
We investigated how the high small-scale species richness of an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China, is maintained. This area is characterized by strong wind and severe cold during long winters. In winter, most livestock is grazed on dead leaves in small pastures near farmers’ residences, whereas in the short summer, livestock is grazed in mountainous areas far from farmers’ residences. The number of plant species and the aboveground biomass were surveyed for three adjacent pastures differing in grazing management: a late-winter grazing pasture grazed moderately from 1 February to 30 April, an early-winter grazing pasture grazed lightly from 20 September to late October, and a whole-year grazing pasture grazed intensively throughout the entire year. In each pasture, we harvested the aboveground biomass from 80 or 100 quadrats of 0.01 m2 along a transect and classified the contents by species. We observed 15.5–19.7 species per 0.01 m2, which is high richness per 0.01 m2 on a worldwide scale. The species richness in the two winter grazing pastures was higher than that in the whole-year grazing pasture. The spatial variation in species richness and species composition in the two winter grazing pastures in which species richness was high was greater than that in the whole-year grazing pasture in which species richness was lower. Most of the leaves that are preserved on the winter grazing pastures during summer are blown away by strong winds during winter, and the remaining leaves are completely exhausted in winter by livestock grazing. A pasture with a high richess is accompanied by a high spatial variation in species richness and species composition. There is a high possibility that the characteristic of spatial variation is also caused by traditional grazing practices in this area.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adler P, Raff D, Lauenroth W (2001) The effect of grazing on the spatial heterogeneity of vegetation. Oecologia 128:465–479
Belsky AJ (1992) Effects of grazing, competition, disturbance and fire on species composition and diversity in grassland communities. J Veg Sci 3:187–200
Chen J, Hori Y, Shiyomi M, Yamamura Y, Yasuda T, Takahashi H, Iki M (2005) Community structure of a semi-natural grassland and an abandoned, forested grassland (in Japanese). Grassl Sci 51:143–151
Cincotta RP, Zhang YQ, Zhou XM (1992) Transhumant alpine pastoralism in northern Qinghai Province: an evaluation of livestock population response during China’s agrarian economic reform. Nomad People 30:3–25
Collins SL (1992) Fire frequency and community heterogeneity in tallgrass prairie vegetation. Ecology 73:2001–2006
Currie DJ (1991) Energy and large-scale patterns of animal- and plant-species richness. Am Nat 137:27–49
Grubb PJ (1977) The maintenance of species-richness in plant communities: the importance of the regeneration niche. Biol Rev 52:107–145
Hakamata T, Hirashima T (1978) Evaluation of cattle excreta on pasture fertility. 1. The excreta dispersion models and their applicable conditions (in Japanese). J Jpn Soc Grassl Sci 24:162–171
Haynes RJ, Williams PH (1993) Nutrient cycling and soil fertility in the grazed pasture ecosystems. Adv Agron 49:119–199
Hirata M, Sugimoto Y, Ueno M (1987) Distributions of dung pats and ungrazed areas in Bahiagrass (Paspalm notatum Flügge) pasture. J Japn Soc Grassl Sci 33:128–139
James EB, Calvin FB (1986) Vegetation response to long term sheep grazing on mountain rangesss. J Range Manage 39:431–434
Jiang S (1997) Sustainable utilization of grassland resources in China (in Chinese). Grassl China 2:73–79
Klimeš L, Dančák M, Hájek M, Jongepierová I, Kučera T (2001) Scale-dependent biases in species counts in a grassland. J Veg Sci 12:699–704
Klein JA, Harte J, Zhao XQ (2004) Experimental warming causes large and rapid species loss, dampened by simulated grazing, on the Tibetan Plateau. Ecol Let 7:1170–1179
Kull K, Zobel M (1991) High species richness in an Estonian wooded meadow. J Veg Sci 2:711–714
Li W, Zhou X (1998) Ecosystems of Qinhai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau and approach for their sustainable management (in Chinese). Guangdong Science & Technology Press, Guanzhou, pp 8–18, 163–164
Liu W, Wang QJ, Wang X, Zhou L (1999) Ecological process of forming “black soil type” deteriorate grassland (in Chinese). Acta Agres Sin 7:300–307
McNaughton SJ (1979) Grazing as an optimization process: grass-ungulate relationships in the Serengeti. Am Nat 113:691–703
Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences (NPIB) Liu SW (ed) (1997) Flora Qinhaiica, vol. I–IV (in Chinese). Qinhai People’s Publishing House, Xining
Noy-Meir I, Gutman M, Kaplan Y (1989) Responses of Mediteranean grassland plants to grazing and protection. J Ecol 77:290–310
Pärtel M, Zobel M (1999) Small-scale plant richness in calcareous grasslands determined by the species pool, community age and shoot density. Ecography 22:153–159
Pielou EC (1975) Ecological diversity. Wiley, New York, pp 14–17
Pierre H (1998) Effects of grazing on plant species composition and spatial distribution in grasslands of the Sahel. Plant Ecol 138:191–202
Rusch G, Fernandez-Palacios JM (1995) The influence of spatial heterogeneity on regeneration by seed in a limestone grassland. J Veg Sci 6:417–426
Shiyomi M, Takahashi S, Kirita H (2000) Roles of plant biomass and vegetational heterogeneity, and energy-matter cycling in grassland sustainability. Ecol Model 132:135–149
Schaller GB (1998) Wildlife of the Tibetan steppe. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Thomas JS, Lisa DS, Brain VH (1999) How grazing and soil quality affect native and exotic plant diversity in Rocky Mountain grasslands. Ecol Appl 9:45–64
Tsutsumi M, Shiyomi M, Wang YS, Tsuiki M, Yu XR (2003) Species diversity of grassland vegetation under three different grazing intensities in the Heilongjiang steppe of China. Grassl Sci 48:510–516
Van der Maarel E, Sykes MT (1993) Small-scale species turnover in a limestone grassland: the carousel model and some comments on the niche concept. J Veg Sci 4:179–188
Van der Maarel E, Noest V, Palmer MW (1995) Variation in species richness on small grassland quadrats: niche structure or small-scale plant mobility? J Veg Sci 6:741–752
Vickery PJ (1992) Grazing and net primary production of a temperate grassland. J Appl Ecol 9:307–314
Wang Q, Zhou X, Shen Z, Zhang Y (1994) The structure of Tibetan Kobresia community and its utilization of the alpine swampy meadow in Qinghai Province. In: Li B (ed) Proceedings of the international symposium on grassland resources, Agricultural Scientech Press, Beijing, pp 359–365
Wang Q, Zhou X, Wang W (1999) A preliminary study of species diversity of main plant communities in alpine meadow (in Chinese). Acta Biol Plate Sin 14:77–87
Wang W, Zhou L, Wang Q, Jiang W (2000) The effect of different grazing intensity to plant spatial patterns in alpine meadow. In: Zheng D, Zhu L (eds) Formation and environment changes and sustainable development on the Tibetan Plateau, Academy Press, Beijing, pp 413–421
Wang YS, Shiyomi M, Tsuiki M, Tsutsumi M, Yu XR, Yi R (2002) Spatial heterogeneity of vegetation under different grazing intensities in the Northwest Heilongjiang steppe of China. Agric Ecosys Env 90:217–230
Willems JH, Peet RK, Bik L (1993) Changes in chalk-grassland structure and species richness resulting selective nutrient additions. J Veg Sci 4:203–212
Wilson JB, Sykes MT, Peet RK (1995) Time and space in the community structure of a species-rich limestone grassland. J Veg Sci 6:729–740
Yiruhan, Shiyomi M, Takahashi S, Okubo T, Akiyama T, Koyama N, Tsuiki M (2001) Analysis of long-term grazing experiment at central Japan. 1. Seasonal and yearly changes in herbage biomass. Grassl Sci 47:344–361
Zhang J (2004) Quantitative ecology (in Chinese). Science Press, Beijing, pp 125–132
Zhao XQ, Zhou XM (1999) Ecological basis of alpine meadow ecosystem management in Tibet: Haibei Alpine Meadow Ecosystem Research Station. Ambio 28:642–647
Zhou HK, Zhao XQ, Tang YH, Zhou L (2005) Alpine grassland degradation and its control in the source region of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, China. Grassl Sci 51:191–203
Zhou XM (2001) Kobresia meadow in China (in Chinese). Science Publishers, Beijing
Zhou XM, Wang ZB, Du Q (1987) The vegetation of Qinghai (in Chinese). Qinghai People’s Publishers, Xining
Zobel M, Otsus M, Liira J, Moora M, Möls T (2000) Is small-scale species richness limited by seed availablility or microsite availability? Ecology 81:3274–3282
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Global Environment Research Fund of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (S-1: Integrated Study for Terrestrial Carbon Management of Asia in the 21st Century based on Scientific Advancements, supervised by Dr. Yan-hong Tang).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, J., Yamamura, Y., Hori, Y. et al. Small-scale species richness and its spatial variation in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Ecol Res 23, 657–663 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-007-0423-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-007-0423-7