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ROTATIONAL GRAZING PROMOTE SHEEP PRODUCTIVITY RATHER THAN PLANT DIVERSITY IN ALPINE MEADOW OF THE QINGHAI-TIBETAN PLATEAU
Author
Hou, Fujiang
Yingxin, Wang
Wang, Zhaofeng
Chang, Shenghua
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2018
Body

In an attempt to alleviate the problem of grassland degradation in Tibet, China�s state and local authorities initiated a program in 2003 called �retire livestock and restore pastures (Harris, 2010). As part of this campaign, intruded and carried out rotational grazing from developed countries by the government has been in progress for more than ten years (Kemp et al. 2013), which brings to light the question: is this program successful in the restoration of degraded alpine grasslands? We set up a controlled grazing experiment that included CG-24, RG-48, RG-24 and NG in summer growing season. Specifically we examined the effect of grazing regimes on: i) sheep live weight gain of individual and hectare; ii) the above-ground community biomass and plant species diversity (plant species richness, Shannon-Weiner index and Camargo index of evenness). This is the only conventional sheep stocking rate and seasonality of stocking study conducted on the QTP. Statistical analyses used SAS software, Version 9.3 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). We found that sheep gained their live weight during summer season. There were no significant difference between continuous grazing and rotational grazing for live weight gain per sheep. Higher stocking rate (48 SM/ha) reduced sheep live weight gain. In contrast, sheep live weight gain per hectare of rotational grazing was significant higher than that of continuous grazing (p<0.05). Twice stocking rate could increase sheep live weight gain per hectare significantly (p<0.05). During summer season, there is no significant difference between continuous grazing and rotational grazing for standcrop and litter biomass. But they were different as time (month) changed. As a whole, grazing can increase plant diversity than no grazing and no difference in different grazing regime.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Reno, NV
Collection
SRM Annual Meeting Abstracts