Effect of grazing intensities on vegetation and soil in meadow steppe.

A series of comparative sampling plots were applied to study effects of selected grazing intensities on the meadow steppe.Results show that long-term heavy grazing reduce grass biomass and fallen leaf cover.Both soil organic matter(SOM) and total nitrogen(TN) was significantly lower(P0.05).Soil bulk density and soil sand particles increased while soil respiration decreased in heavy grazing areas.There are significant correlations between grassland vegetation and soil with different indexes.Factor analysis reduces these indicators to four main factors and classifies different grazing gradients.These results have significantly important application values for reasonable utilization and protection of grasslands.