Control measures and effect of tourism activities on grassland vegetation and soil environment

Grassland tourism has obtained the good graces of tourists, but grassland environmental problems becoming more and more serious with increasing development of grassland tourism. This review summarizes and analyses the effects of tourism activities on vegetation and soil. The effects of tourism on vegetation and soil were clear. Due to the tourism disturbance, vegetation species number, vegetation coverage, species richness index, evenness index, withered vegetation content, soil water content, soil nutrients, and soil microorganism numbers were all decreased, and soil bulk density, pH, and soil hardness were increased. With increased disturbance intensity the effects on both vegetation and soil were more pronounced. To protect and restore vegetation resources along with development of grassland tourism, we propose some control measures, including establishment of a database of vegetable resources and a modern soil environment monitoring system, use of restoration techniques for vegetation, improvement of soil management, and to increase characteristic region of tourism, were proposed.