| Abstract: | The experiment was conducted in Inner Mongolia steppe located in 43°26′-44° 08′N, 116°04′-117°05′ E in 1989-1997. The grazing experiment design was 5 stocking rates (0.00, 1.33, 2.67, 4.00, 5.33 and 6.67 sheep·hm-2, but 0.00, 1.33, 2.00, 2.67, 3.33 and 4.00 sheep·hm-2 in 1990) with three 1 hm2 rotational paddocks per treatment. The sheep were Inner Mongolia fine sheep and the experiment was performed during warm seasons every year from May 20 to October 5. The objectives were to research the integrated influence of different stocking rates on plant diversity and to provide knowledge of its mechanism by the method of continuous monitoring of 8 years for the same grazing experiment rather than through spatial gradient.The results showed that using the method of 100 m sample line was suitable for estimating the abundance of plant species. Simpson index and evenness were better parameters to measure the influence of different stocking rates on plant diversity for Artemisia frigida community. The plant species abundance almost remained unchanged, but the plant diversity and evenness decreased as the stocking rate increased, and the community dominance increased with stocking rate during the 8 years' grazing under different stocking rates. The interaction of the preferred ingestion of grazing sheep with heavy stocking rate may be one of the key reasons resulting in the decrease of plant diversity and evenness. Grass proportion decreased with the increase of stocking rates and A. frigida community degraded further into Potentilla acaulis community under heavy grazing or over-grazing. The succession and plant diversity of A. frigia community under different stocking rates mainly depend on the dynamics of A. frigida, Cleistogenes squarrosa, Potentilla acaulis, Agropyron cristatum and Carex duriuscula populations; Cleistogenes squarrosa population is one of the 3 populations of maximum abundance under all stocking rates from 1989 to 1997. |
