Synergies between mini-patches of plant communities and steady-stage
alpine meadows on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Abstract
Mini-patches are considered indicators of an ecosystem’s response to
interference, particularly those in alpine meadow ecosystems. Thus,
monitoring the characteristics of mini-patches can elucidate the
organization of an ecosystem’s components, the strategies it employs to
survive interference, and the mechanisms whereby it maintains stability.
In this research, we used multivariate statistical analysis methods to
investigate the characteristics of the plant community and the
micro-topography of mini-patches in alpine meadows on the Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau from August 2012 to August 2013. Our findings show that (1)
mini-patches were distributed in alpine meadows with different levels of
degradation and the effects of meteorological characteristics
(accumulated temperature above 0°C and accumulation of precipitation)
and geographical characteristics (altitude, longitude, and latitude)
contributed less than 20% to their distribution and characteristics;
(2) alpine meadows maintained aboveground biomass within a certain range
under a relative larger range of grazing intensity, illustrating their
ability to regulate community structure and components under various
intensities of disturbance and showing that alpine degradation could
itself counteract grazing disturbance; and (3) overgrazing is the main
driver of multi-steady stage coexistence in alpine meadows, as the
mini-patches that remain involved in plant community succession
function, and as a source of germplasm in the plant community regime
shift under different grazing intensities damaged alpine meadows.