Effect of grazing on quantitative characteristics of Caragana microphylla population

To understand the effect of grazing on the quantitative characteristics of Caragana microphylla population, we investigated the shrub cover, density, height, and total biomass of C. microphylla under non-grazing, light-grazing, moderate-grazing, and heavy-grazing treatments. The results showed that with increase in grazing intensity, the density of the C. microphylla shrub increased initially, and then decreased; however, there was no significant difference among the different treatments (P=0.11), suggesting, to some extent, that moderate grazing benefitted the reproduction of C. microphylla. Contrastingly, grazing significantly reduced the shrub cover, height, and total biomass of C. microphylla (P<0.05), suggesting that grazing had an obvious negative effect on the shrub. Based on the quantitative characteristics of C. microphylla population under different grazing treatments, we suggested that moderate grazing intensity should be moderate-intensity grazing in desert steppes