4.3 Succession pattern of the desert steppe plant community under a long-term stocking rate gradient
Plant communities in the desert steppe are developing in two opposite directions across the grazing rate gradient. In the no grazing (CK) treatment, shrubs continue to proliferate and gradually develop into the dominant population in the plant community, indicating a pattern of shrub encroachment under grazing exclosure. Light grazing maintains a mixture of shrubs and herbaceous plants, supporting the results of Kemp et al. (2018). Under long-term high stocking rates (MG, HG), particularly for HG, shrubs tend to disappear, and herbaceous plants dominate the community. Perennial grasses have an absolute advantage in the plant community at high stocking rates (Fig. 4). Among perennial grasses, the dominant species of the plant community, Stipa breviflora , plays an important role (Lv et al, 2020), and its strong grazing tolerance may be related to the fragmentation of plant clusters (Lv et al., 2019) and its sexual reproduction characteristics (Liu et al., 2018). Preferential utilization of shrubs (including seeds and seedlings) by livestock may help maintain desert steppe communities.