SINO-AUSTRALIAN WORKSHOP

Management of grassland-livestock systems and combating land degradation in Northern China
The Shine Dome, 6-8 December 2005

The response of plant community structure and composing species to disturbing factors (eg. grazing) in alpine meadow
by Professor Du GuoZhen, Lanzhou University

Many people know that alpine meadow in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is a unique natural landscape and an important grassland resource, which have the maximal productivity and biology diversity in the whole plateau. The alpine meadow is the backbone of progressive stockbreeding and the plateau’s economy and has a crucial influence on the waterhead self-restraint and supply of the Yellow and Yangtze River. It is obvious that the overstocking and overuse mainly decide the degradation severely of alpine meadow grassland.

We introduce briefly the some chief results that we studied on the alpine meadow in eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau at the former stage. We made some basic researches about the alpine meadow in individuals, populations, communities of plants and some applied researches about the renewing t technologies and restoration measures of degraded grassland. These studies aimed to give some scientific foundation for the reasonable protection and utilization and restoration of degraded alpine meadow grassland in the future.

We concluded that the reasonable utilization of alpine meadow and restoration of degraded grassland should be based on some effective technology and measures which were put forward after systemic studying and monitoring by a series of researches. Some experience concluded from other areas cannot be applicable in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau alpine meadow. At the same time, we found that we must conform these technologies and measures to usual participation of local people if we want to had a maximal efficiency.

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