Restoration Practices Affect Alpine Meadow Ecosystem Coupling and Functions

Degradation of alpine meadows on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is an important issue for ecological science, policy making, and the welfare of local herders. Destruction of alpine meadows results from degeneration of vegetation and soil systems and from the mechanical decoupling of the environment, grassland, livestock, and herders and, subsequently, discordance among these subsystems. In this study, systematic integration of restoration techniques based on the grassland agroecosystems coupling theory was developed for the management and restoration of degraded alpine meadows. To test the effectiveness of these integrated restoration techniques, we conducted restoration trials that included grazing management, enclosed, fertilization, overseeding, and sward ripping by evaluating the ecosystem coupling of soil, plant and livestock, and ecosystem functions. The results of this study suggest that comprehensive restoration practices include grazing and agronomy techniques (fertilizer, overseeding, and sward ripping) that result in the greatest level of ecosystem coupling, while the single restoration practice leads to poorly coupled ecosystems. Restoration practice changes in ecosystem functionality are positively related to changes in ecosystem coupling. Our results highlight the importance of diversified restoration practices for facilitating ecological coupling and functioning in the degraded alpine meadow. The restorative scheme also bridges the gap between restoration theory and practice by providing guidelines for herders and policy makers for the urgent task of restoring degraded alpine meadows.