Restoration of soil quality of degraded grassland can be accelerated by reseeding in an arid area of Northwest China

Qi Lu; Hongbin Ma; Yao Zhou; Jindi Liu; Yan Shen

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1101295

Restoration of soil quality of degraded grassland can be accelerated by reseeding in an arid area of Northwest China

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Jun 13:14:1101295. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1101295. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Qi Lu^{1

2

3}, Hongbin Ma^{1

2

3

4}, Yao Zhou^{1

2

3}, Jindi Liu^{1

2

3}, Yan Shen^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Model Innovation in Forage Production Efficiency, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Ningxia University, Ningxia, China.
² Ningxia Grassland and Animal Husbandry Engineering Technology Research Center, Ningxia University, Ningxia, China.
³ College of Forestry and Prataculture, Ningxia University, Ningxia, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory for Restoration and Reconstruction of Degraded Ecosystems in Northwestern China of Ministry of Education, Ningxia, China.

Abstract

Grassland restoration measures control soil degradation and improve soil quality (SQ) worldwide, but there is little knowledge about the effectiveness of restoration measures affecting SQ in arid areas, and the restoration rate of degraded grasslands to natural restoration grasslands and reseeded grasslands remains unclear. To establish a soil quality index (SQI) to evaluate the effects of different grassland restoration measures on SQ, continuous grazing grassland (CG) (as a reference), grazing exclusion grassland (EX), and reseeding grassland (RS) were selected and sampled in the arid desert steppe. Two soil indicator selection methods were conducted (total data set (TDS) and minimum data set (MDS)), followed by three SQ indices (additive soil quality index (SQI_a), weighted additive soil quality index (SQI_w), and Nemoro soil quality index (SQI_n)). The results indicated that SQ was better assessed using the SQI_w (R ²= 0.55) compared to SQI_a and SQI_n for indication differences among the treatments due to the larger coefficient of variance. The SQI_w-MDS value in CG grassland was 46% and 68% lower than that of EX grassland and RS grassland, respectively. Our findings provided evidence that restoration practices of grazing exclusion and reseeding can significantly improve the SQ in the arid desert steppe, and native plant reseeded can accelerate soil quality restoration.

Keywords: desert steppe; ecological restoration; native species reseeded; restoration rate; soil quality.

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by the Ningxia Key Research and Development Program (2020BBF02003 and 2021BEG02009), the Ningxia Science and Technology Innovation Leader Training Project (KJT2018003), and the First-class Discipline Construction Project (Grassland Science Discipline) for the high school in Ningxia (NXYLXK2017A01).