Approch on restoration mechanism of rotational grazing system on desert steppe

Rotational grazing (RG) and continuous grazing (CG) were compared in degraded desert steppe in Inner Mongolia on family ranch scale. Two ranches were chosen, one for continuous grazing and another for rotational grazing, with stocking rate of 1.15 and 1.24 sheep/hm², respectively. Furthermore, an area of 100 m×100 m, inhibit to grazing, was set as a check block (CK) near the ranches. The results indicate that plant weight percent, important value index (IV) and productivity of the dominant species were higher in RG and CK than that in CG, while there is little difference between RG and CK, from which it can be inferred that rotational grazing can benefit the degraded land compared with CK, and have similar effect as inclosure treatment in improving degraded desert steppe. Hence, optimizing grazing system was recommended in considering the restoration of degraded grassland as a result of overgrazing.