Effects of Grazing on vegetation in the Gobi desert region of Mongolia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5564/pmas.v64i01.3546Keywords:
grazing intensity, range condition, environmental variabilityAbstract
Mongolia is a massive, semi-arid country in Central Asia with a huge territory of 1,500,000 km2, with rangeland making up around 75% of the country's territory. These rangelands have supported herders and grazing animals for millennia. The transition from nomadic to stationary livestock husbandry in Mongolia’s rangeland has resulted in major changes in vegetation communities due to increased livestock numbers. The primary objective of this study is to examine the impacts of grazing on the vegetation of rangelands in the desert steppe ecosystem. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of livestock grazing by measuring vegetation standing crop biomass, vegetation cover, and species' richness. The study was carried out in Khanbogd soum (district), Umnugovi aimag, the southern province of Mongolia. To assess the grazing impact, we sampled fourteen winter camps of herders who are members of the four herder groups, who were located at 1000 m and 2000 m from each. In total, we sampled 28 plots in two consecutive years. Our results indicate that aboveground biomass, cover, and species' richness did not differ with increasing distance from winter camps. Similar grazing pressures were shown at 1,000 and 2,000 meters away from the winter camps as well.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Sainchuluu Amarsanaa, Ariuntsetseg Lkhagva, Bolormaa Tsooj, Batkhishig Baival, Chantsallkham Jamsranjav, Solongo Tsogtbaatar
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