青藏高原面积辽阔地势高亢北接广袤的欧亚大陆南有雄伟壮观的.DOC

Response of alpine meadow communities to burrow density changes of plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau( Zheng-gang GUO*, Xiao-feng LI, Xing-yuan LIU, Xue-rong ZHOU State Key Laboratory of Grassland Farming Systems, College of Pastoral Agricultural Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China ABSTRACT: Plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) is a key component of alpine meadow ecosystem in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and the increase of its number leads plant components of alpine meadow ecosystem to adaptively response. A field survey was carried out to determine the response of alpine meadow community to population densities of plateau pika by using available burrow density to replace the population density of plateau pika. This study showed that the height of alpine meadow communities gradually increased, and the cover of alpine meadow communities firstly decreased, and then increased as the available burrow density increased. With the increase of available burrow density, the richness index of alpine meadow communities firstly decreased and then increased, and the evenness index of alpine meadow communities firstly increased and then decreased, however, the diversity index of alpine meadow communities firstly increased, and then decreased, finally increased. In the increasing process of available burrow density, the total plant biomass and the unpalatable plant biomass firstly decreased and then increased, and the palatable plant biomass firstly increased and then decreased, indicating that the palatable plant biomass was the highest and the unpalatable plant biomass was the lowest at 14 available burrow per 625m2. In the economic groups of plant biomass, the weed biomass was the highest and the legume biomass was the lowest at any available burrow densities, and the grass biomass and the sedge biomass were related to available burrow densities, indicating that the sedge biomass were bigger than the grass biomass at 3 available