Responses of Leymus chinensis Individual Traits to Different Grazing Patterns

To find out the effect of grazing on plant individual traits in typical steppe,a field experiment was conducted in the experimental station of grassland ecosystem in Zhangjiakou.The land grazed for five years consecutively was sampled.Plant height,aboveground biomass,belowground biomass,root water content and the ratio of root to shoot were measured for analyzing the responses of Leyrnus chinensis individual traits to different grazing patterns.The results showed that grazing induced the changes of individual traits in the typical grassland of Inner Mongolia.Plant height and crown plexus picture were reduced with long-term overgrazing.Grazing changed the biomass allocation and increased the proportion of underground biomass.Aboveground had more fierce and rapid response to different grazing patterns than belowground.Root water content increased with the increase of grazing intensity.Over grazing had bigger destructiveness to the grassland in fall than in summer.