Strengthening grazing pressure management to improve grassland ecosystem services

Abstract

Grassland ecosystem services (GES) are closely related to human well-being, and an accurate understanding of the driving mechanisms and relative contributions of climate change and human activities on GES is beneficial for grassland sustainable management. Current studies have focused on analyzing the impacts of climate factors on GES, but few studies have included grazing pressure to comprehensively assess the complex impacts of climate change and human activities. This study systematically analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of climate factors, grazing pressure, and ecosystem services in Xilingol typical steppe from 2000–2019, and thoroughly explored the driving mechanisms and relative contributions of climate change and grazing pressure on GES over the past 20 years. The study points out that although the overall ecosystem services in the study area have improved over the past 20 years, driven by climate change and favorable human activities, grazing pressure management should be further strengthened to improve the resilience of ecosystem services to unfavorable climate conditions due to the high uncertainty of future climate conditions. The research results can help to improve the understanding of the complex relationship between climate change, land use and GES, and provide recommendations for future grassland use planning.