Abstract
Most alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau are at different stages of community succession induced by grazing practices. Quantifying the succession sequence and assessing the dynamics of plant composition, ecosystem coupling, and multifunctionality across successional stages are essential for reasonable restoration of degraded alpine meadow. Here, we selected areas with different grazing disturbance histories and used them as a space series (i.e., space-for-time substitution) to study the community succession. Our work quantified the plant succession sequence of alpine meadow induced by grazing with plant functional group approach. The plant succession sequence is from the tall sedge community with erect growth to the short undesirable toxic forbs community with prostrate growth. Ecosystem coupling, ecosystem multifunctionality and their relationships were all the lowest in Stage 4. Compared to Stage 4, the ecosystem multifunctionality index increased in Stages 1, 2, and 3 by 102.6, 89.8, and 207.6%, respectively; the extent of ecosystem coupling increased by 20.0, 16.8, and 21.2%, respectively. Our results indicated that the driving factors of ecosystem coupling and ecosystem multifunctionality were soil factor individual in early successional stage to plant-soil simultaneously in late successional stage. Our results also highlighted the importance of toxic weeds during the late stage of degraded succession and suggest that the expansion of toxic plants is a consequence of their greater suitability from a successional perspective. The findings of this study would provide valuable guidance for optimizing the management and restoration practice of alpine meadow.
Highlights
Plant community succession is the process of species replacement (Lavorel and Garnier, 2010; Milchunas and Vandever, 2013) or the change in plant functional traits over time (Kahmen and Poschlod, 2004; He et al, 2019)
In the case of this alpine meadow, we suggest that the expansion of toxic plants is a consequence of their greater suitability form a successional perspective
Our study quantified the plant succession sequence of alpine meadow induced by grazing with plant functional group approach
Summary
Plant community succession is the process of species replacement (Lavorel and Garnier, 2010; Milchunas and Vandever, 2013) or the change in plant functional traits over time (Kahmen and Poschlod, 2004; He et al, 2019). The effect of livestock grazing on the differential performance of plants is important in successional process (Milchunas and Vandever, 2013; Howard et al, 2020). In addition to directly foraging and ingesting the shoot of plants and changing the competitive balance among plant species (Duhamel et al, 2019), livestock grazing can influence successional rates and successional trajectories by impacting seed dispersal and colonization patterns (Wang et al, 2018; Ma et al, 2020). Seedling herbivory and defense play a fundamental role in regulating the successional trajectories by livestock grazing (Hanley and Lamont, 2001). At this period, plants are vulnerable to organs loss in their life cycle (Hanley and Lamont, 2001). Change in plant species composition influencing energy and nutrient flow and ecosystem succession by altering litter decomposition (Song et al, 2017; Barnes et al, 2018)
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