TY - JOUR

T1 - Plant communities of central Tibetan pastures in the Alpine Steppe/Kobresia pygmaea ecotone

AU - Miehe, Georg

AU - Miehe, Sabine

AU - Bach, Kerstin

AU - Nölling, Jasmin

AU - Hanspach, Jan

AU - Reudenbach, Christoph

AU - Kaiser, Knut

AU - Wesche, Karsten

AU - Mosbrugger, Volker

AU - Yang, Yongping

AU - Ma, Yaoming

N1 - Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2011/8

Y1 - 2011/8

N2 - Eleven plant communities of the central Tibetan ecotone (31°20'-33°00'N/89°00'-92°10'E) between the Kobresia pygmaea grazing pastures of the eastern highlands and the open short grass steppe with cushion plants (" Alpine Steppe" ) of the north-western highlands have been described on the basis of 189 plot-based floristically complete vegetation records. In parallel, remote sensing techniques distinguish four main land-use cover types. Our hypotheses are: (1) The plant communities of the central Tibetan highlands are grazing-adapted and resilient to degradation. (2) In contrast to grazing resilient plant functional types, the turf cover of the K. pygmaea pastures and the Kobresia schoenoides wetlands is degradable through desiccation, periglacial processes, soil-dwelling small mammals and livestock. Five grazing-related plant functional traits are introduced. Grazing tolerance is the prevalent functional type. Species with no specific protection against grazing make up not more than 6% of the total cover. Unpalatable plants cover up to 8%. Only the azonal K. schoenoides swamps - the indispensable winter grazing reserve - have been widely degraded and depleted by 75%, being replaced by Carex sagaensis grazing pastures. It can be foreseen that governmental policy of sedentarisation of nomads will lead to reduced grazing mobility and degradation of winter grazing reserves.

AB - Eleven plant communities of the central Tibetan ecotone (31°20'-33°00'N/89°00'-92°10'E) between the Kobresia pygmaea grazing pastures of the eastern highlands and the open short grass steppe with cushion plants (" Alpine Steppe" ) of the north-western highlands have been described on the basis of 189 plot-based floristically complete vegetation records. In parallel, remote sensing techniques distinguish four main land-use cover types. Our hypotheses are: (1) The plant communities of the central Tibetan highlands are grazing-adapted and resilient to degradation. (2) In contrast to grazing resilient plant functional types, the turf cover of the K. pygmaea pastures and the Kobresia schoenoides wetlands is degradable through desiccation, periglacial processes, soil-dwelling small mammals and livestock. Five grazing-related plant functional traits are introduced. Grazing tolerance is the prevalent functional type. Species with no specific protection against grazing make up not more than 6% of the total cover. Unpalatable plants cover up to 8%. Only the azonal K. schoenoides swamps - the indispensable winter grazing reserve - have been widely degraded and depleted by 75%, being replaced by Carex sagaensis grazing pastures. It can be foreseen that governmental policy of sedentarisation of nomads will lead to reduced grazing mobility and degradation of winter grazing reserves.

KW - Environmental planning

KW - Ecology

KW - Grazing

KW - Plant functional types

KW - Quinghai Tibet plateau

KW - Remote sensing

KW - Steppe

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79955745785&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2011.03.001

DO - 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2011.03.001

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 75

SP - 711

EP - 723

JO - Journal of Arid Environments

JF - Journal of Arid Environments

SN - 0140-1963

IS - 8

ER -