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A Study on Evaluating a Conservational Method to Improve Natural Degraded Grassland

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  2011 Louisville, Kentucky, August 7-10, 2011  1110831.(doi:10.13031/2013.37332)
Authors:   Hongfang Yuan, Decheng Wang, Guanghui Wang, Yong You, Pengjun Liu
Keywords:   Degraded grassland, Soil-gashing and Root-cutting, Soil physical properties, Timothy, Herbage self-growing

In recent years the natural grassland in Xinjiang province was degraded seriously year by year. Many improved ways had been applied in this region; however, they did not work very well. In this study, a new method named Soil-gashing and Root-cutting was developed to aerated soil and promote the herbage self-growing, which cause low soil disturbance and minimal vegetation destruction. The experiment to evaluate the impaction of this method was conducted in Zhaosu region, which could represent the figure of degenerated natural grassland of Xinjiang province. Treated plots (TP) and control plots (CP) were built in the experiment field, the soil physical properties parameters including Cone Index, soil bulk density, water moisture and soil porosity were tested continuously from April to August in 2009 in above plots. The total crop yield and the percentage of two main kinds of grass specious (Thalictrum, Timothy) in total crop yield were measured in July. The results indicated that the soil Cone Index of TP decreased by nearly 10% compared with CP; soil moisture content of TP increased by 19%, the soil porosity increased by 7% and the soil bulk density decreased by 16% compared with CP, respectively. The total crop yield in the TP was much more than the CP. The percentage of the Thalictrum in total crop yield of TP was reduced by 18.7% compared with CP. The percentage of the Timothy was more than 57% in total crop of TP, while it was less than 46% in CP.

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