Study on the Characteristic of Vegetation Composition and Community Succession of Alpine Meadow under Three Management Modes

Purpose To clarify the different characteristics of plant community in alpine meadows under three management modes, and explore the suitable management mode for maintaining community stability.

Method We analyzed the important value of plant species, community structure, biomass composition of functional groups, the Raunkiaer frequency coefficient of species and the community successional degree under enclosure (EG), traditional cold-season grazing (TG) and continuous grazing grasslands (CG) in the northeast margin of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Result 1) Species composition of plant community was significantly different among EG, TG and CG grasslands, their important values of grass were dominant in plant community, being were 0.672, 0.617 and 0.490, respectively. 2) The EG mode increased plant community height, coverage, biomass of shoots and root, while it decreased plant diversity in genus and species levels in contrast to grazing (TG and CG). 3) The above biomass proportion of hemicryptophytes in EG grassland (80.8%) was higher than that in TG and CG grasslands, but the above biomass proportion of geophytes of the latter (40.3% and 50.1%) was higher than the former, and the above biomass proportion of sedge in CG grassland was higher (11.9%) than the others. 4) The Raunkiaer frequency coefficient of species of plant community in TG and CG grasslands were typical anti-“J” pattern, which suggested that their communities were relatively mature and stable; the succession degree of the EG grassland (81.72) was higher than the CG (68.29) and the TG (63.33) grasslands.

Conclusion The EG mode can encourage grassland restoration and make the plant community tend to be a climax succession stage, while grazing (TG and CG) mode has a positive effect on the maintenance of plant diversity and community stability in alpine meadows.