Hu FL1,2, B Liu1,3, ZM Liu1,3, YT Fang1,3, CA Busso4
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.84, No.1, pp. 209-221, 2015, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2015.84.209
Abstract Grasslands are one of the most widespread landscapes worldwide, covering approximately one-fifth of the world’s land surface, where grazing is a common practice. How carbon storage responds to grazing in steppes remains poorly understood. We quantified the effects of grazing on community composition and species diversity, and carbon storage in two typical grasslands of northeastern China, one in Horqin and the other one in Hulunbeier. In both grasslands, grazing did not influence plant species diversity. However, it substantially decreased aboveground carbon by 31% and 54% in Horqin and Hulunbeier, respectively. Fenced and grazing treatments showed More >