Succession and Enhancement Mechanism of Ecosystem Productivity in the De-farming Area of the Ecotone Between Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in North China

Abstract

The succession and enhancement mechanism of the ecosystem productivity with the characteristics of de-farming in the ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry in North China was discussed in order to provide an ideaology or a technical basis for maintaining the impetus of ecological restoration and economic development in this region. A case study was applied in combination with the theoretical analysis. The results indicated that the biomass productivity of the de-farming subsystem decreased by 38.4–72.3% compared with that of farming subsystem in the ecosystem. The main function of de-farming subsystem was focused on ecological productivity, it caused the ideal beneficial recycling ‘de-farming → planting grass → raising animals → earn money' difficult to be realized. With the differentiation of de-farming subsystem, the natural and social resources input to the farming subsystem were accumulated. This laid a basis for the new attributes of economic productivity to be upgraded. The case study indicated that the economic productivity of the ecosystem was increased by 8.85–13.35 times due to re-coupling between the de-farming subsystem and the farming subsystem as well as coupling between microhabitat differentiation and crop production in the subsystems, where the microhabitat differentiation could enrich water and fertilizer in the same field. It was concluded that the important mechanisms to enhance the system productivity in the ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry of North China included structure rebuilding and opening of the de-farming ecosystem and taking the advantage of complementary cooperative production among different regions under the market economy and rebuilding an open agro-pasture production structure.