Effects of Different Stocking Rate on Plant Community in Desert Steppe
Through the research on the compare of the characteristics of plant community under different stocking rates on Stipa breviflora in desert steppe, the results showed that the coverage of different plant populations had the different response to the different stocking rates, the coverage of Cleistogenes songorica under light grazing was the highest, and the highest coverages of Neopallasia pectinata in July and August were found in medium grazing areas and light grazing areas. The height of Stipa brevi flora, Artemisia frigida , Convolvulus ammannii, Allium tenuissimum ,Kochia prostrate decreased significantly as the stocking rate increasing. While there's no significant difference in height of Salsola collina under these four stocking rates. With the increasing stocking rate, the aboveground biomass of the plant community decreased, and it had a significant difference among different stocking rates. The status of community constructive species and dominant species were not significant different on different stocking rate. However, the importance value of annual Salsola collina enhanced and reached the maximum under heavy grazing; Shannon-wiener index, Simpson index and Pielou evenness index reached the maximum under light grazing, the value of Shannon-wiener index and Simpson index showed that light grazing> moderate grazing> heavy grazing> no grazing, and there were significant differences between no grazing and light grazing.
Desert steppeStocking rateDiversity indexImportance value