Effect of mounds of cansu mole-rat (Myospalax cansus Lyon.) on shrub-steppe vegetation in the loess plateau, north-west China
1993
Hongo, A. (Obihiro Univ. of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido (Japan)) | Matsumoto, S. | Takahashi, H. | Zou, H. | Cheng, J.
In order to assess the effect of mounds constructed by Cansu mole-rat (Myospalax cansus Lyon) on shrub-steppe vegetation, the field survey was carried out in 1989 and 1990 in the hilly grassland of Nanhua Mountain situated in the west of the Loess Plateau. The ordination method was applied to vegetation data using a principal component analysis. Soils were sampled and analyzed. Trigonella ruthenica and Potentilla tanacetifolia which have a stoloniferous growth form, showed a high coverage on a new mound and Thymus mongolicus on both new and old mounds. Artemisia species seem to be intolerant for soil disturbance because of a low coverage on a new mound. The species ordination indicated that the trend represented by axes I and II corresponded to the a type of mounds within the northern slope and different slopes, respectively. Apparently higher accumulation of calcium carbonate was obtained on the western slope, compared with that on the northern slope, where there were many mounds of Cansu mole-rat. With respect to total nitrogen and organic matter, Cansu mole-rats destroyed not only shrub-steppe vegetation but also the soil structure especially at a surface layer. Using a mean size of mounds (1.84 centiare), the damaged area was estimated as about 15 percent of total area on the northern slope
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