关键词: 放牧管理, 轮牧, 草畜平衡, 草地修复, 典型草原

Abstract: Aims China’s rangeland management policy has shifted from grassland fencing and grazing removal towards a balancing grazing between livestock loads and herbage biomass. Therefore, it is an essential theoretical and practical issue to promote grassland restoration by smart grazing management. Methods In this study, we executed a two-year experiment with continuous grazing, traditional rotational grazing, and intensive rotational grazing as treatment groups and no grazing as control group to estimate the ecological and economic effects of intensive rotational grazing in a typical steppe of Xilingol. Important findings Intensive rotational grazing could restore the biomass of Leymus chinensis and Stipa spp., and significantly put weight on the adult sheep. Furthermore, the advantage of intensive rotational grazing is rooted in extending the post-grazing recovery time, and limiting the selective grazing of the animal under the balancing of livestock loads and herbage biomass. Therefore, our preliminary results suggest that it is a promising way to use intensive rotational grazing and to follow the balancing of livestock loads and herbage biomass to achieve the synergy of economic outcomes and ecosystem services in rangeland management practices.

Key words: Rangeland management, Rotational grazing, Balancing of livestock loads and herbage biomass, Grassland restoration, Typical steppe