Abstract
In mountain-basin systems in the arid region, grasslands are sensitive to the impacts of climate change and human activities. In this study, we aimed to resolve two key scientific issues: (1) distinguish and explain the laws of grassland ecosystem deterioration in a mountain-basin system and identify the key factors related; and (2) evaluate whether damaged grasslands ecosystem have the potential for natural revegetation. Hence, by combining spatial analysis with statistical methods, we studied the trends of the deterioration of the grassland ecosystem and its spatial characteristics in Kulusitai, a mountain-basin system in the arid region of Northwest China. According to our results, vegetation coverage and productivity exhibited significant decreasing trends, while the temperature vegetation drought index (TVDI) exhibited a significant increasing trend. Drainage of groundwater, because of increase in irrigation for the expanded irrigated area around Kulusitai, and climate warming were the critical triggers that leaded to the soil drought. Soil drought and overgrazing, resulting from the impact of human activities, were the main factors responsible for the deterioration of the grassland ecosystems. However, limiting the number of livestock to a reasonable scale and reducing the irrigated area may help to increase the soil moisture, thus promoting the germination of soil seed banks and facilitating the normal growth of grassland vegetation. Furthermore, based on analysis of the phenology of the grassland vegetation, the reasonable period for harvesting and storage is from July 29 to August 5. The results of this study provide a scientific basis and practical guide for restoring mountain-basin grassland systems in arid regions.
Highlights
As one of the most widely distributed vegetation types on the Earth [1], grasslands play a significant role in wind-breaking and sand-fixing, water conservation, maintaining biodiversity, and forage production [2,3]
In arid regions of Central Asia, grassland vegetation is usually distributed in the mountain-basin system, a kind of landform composed of an alternating distribution of mountains and basins [7,8]
Based on analyzing of the changes in phenology, the optimum period for grass clipping and storage is from July 29 to August 5 in Kulusitai grassland
Summary
As one of the most widely distributed vegetation types on the Earth [1], grasslands play a significant role in wind-breaking and sand-fixing, water conservation, maintaining biodiversity, and forage production [2,3]. Restoring the degraded grassland ecosystem in the mountain-basin system is usually the general focus of ecological conservations in the arid region [9]. Understanding various issues related to grassland deterioration is crucial for its restoration [12,13,14] Climate change, such as global warming and altered precipitation patterns, and human activities, such as reclamation of grassland and overgrazing, are generally accepted to be the underlying drivers associated with grassland degradation [5,15,16,17,18,19]. In mountain-basin systems of the arid regions, water is the primary restricting factor for vegetation dynamics [20,21], less precipitation and climate warming can readily cause soil droughts, thereby resulting in deterioration of the grassland vegetation system due to water deficit [11].
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