Small‐scale species richness and its spatial variation in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau

Abstract We investigated how the high small‐scale species richness of an alpine meadow on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau, China, is maintained. This area is characterized by strong wind and severe cold during long winters. In winter, most livestock is grazed on dead leaves in small pastures near farmers’ residences, whereas in the short summer, livestock is grazed in mountainous areas far from farmers’ residences. The number of plant species and the aboveground biomass were surveyed for three adjacent pastures differing in grazing management: a late‐winter grazing pasture grazed moderately from 1 February to 30 April, an early‐winter grazing pasture grazed lightly from 20 September to late October, and a whole‐year grazing pasture grazed intensively throughout the entire year. In each pasture, we harvested the aboveground biomass from 80 or 100 quadrats of 0.01 m 2 along a transect and classified the contents by species. We observed 15.5–19.7 species per 0.01 m 2 , which is high richness per 0.01 m 2 on a worldwide scale. The species richness in the two winter grazing pastures was higher than that in the whole‐year grazing pasture. The spatial variation in species richness and species composition in the two winter grazing pastures in which species richness was high was greater than that in the whole‐year grazing pasture in which species richness was lower. Most of the leaves that are preserved on the winter grazing pastures during summer are blown away by strong winds during winter, and the remaining leaves are completely exhausted in winter by livestock grazing. A pasture with a high richess is accompanied by a high spatial variation in species richness and species composition. There is a high possibility that the characteristic of spatial variation is also caused by traditional grazing practices in this area.