The impact of management and livestock grazing on the grasslands of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is the highest and largest plateau in the world. Approximately 60% of the plateau is grassland, which is used mainly for grazing by yaks and Tibetan sheep. The area is characterized by an extremely harsh environment, namely, severe cold, low air oxygen content, strong winds, and high ultraviolet radiation. Because of climate warming and anthropogenic activities, such as overgrazing, shrub harvesting, and poor land management, approximately 90% of alpine grassland has been degraded, with 35% considered seriously degraded. In efforts to restore the grassland, the Chinese government has taken a number of actions such as parcellation of the land, settling the herders, and fencing areas to prevent grazing. As a result, the herders lost their traditional mobility and much of their grazing lands and were forced into more sedentary livestock production. This chapter describes the new management systems introduced with the changes, and their impacts on the ecology of the grassland and the economy of the households. The chapter also discusses the effects of grazing, stocking rate, and fencing on the below- and aboveground biomasses, soil properties, and the microbial communities of the grassland.