Effects of different grassland utilization patterns on plant and soil characteristics in the Bashang area of northern Hebei Province

Night grazing and horseback riding tourism are the two main uses of grassland in the Bashang area of northern Hebei; however, their corresponding effects on the grassland ecosystem remain unclear. Therefore, we used a combined method of field surveying, indoor measurement, and data analysis to evaluate the effects of these two types of grassland uses on the vegetation communities and soil characteristics within Fengning Manchu Autonomous County, Chengde; in particular, we used night grazing (indicating semi-prohibited grassland) and horseback riding tourism (indicating tourist grassland) as the research groups, and no-grazing grassland (indicating no-grazing grassland) as the control. The corresponding results demonstrated that there was a dominance of perennial herbaceous plants in the semi-grazing grassland; further, the number of species and dominance of the first- and second-year herbaceous plants in the tourist grassland were lower than those in the no-grazing grassland. The height, coverage, aboveground biomass, Simpson index, Shannon–Wiener index, and Margalef richness index of the vegetation, and the available nitrogen, total potassium, available potassium, and pH of the soil were determined to be significantly lower in semi-grazing grassland and tourism grassland than those in the no-grazing grassland (P < 0.05); additionally, the non-capillary porosity of soil was significantly higher in semi-grazing grassland and tourism grassland than that of the no-grazing grassland (P < 0.05). Moreover, the height, coverage, richness and Shannon–Wiener index of the vegetation, and the available nitrogen and total potassium content of soil were significantly lower in the tourist grassland than those in the semi-grazing grassland (P < 0.05); similarly, the non-capillary porosity of the soil was significantly higher in the tourist grassland than that in the semi-grazing grassland. Finally, the large aggregate content was determined to be significantly lower in the semi-grazing grassland than that in the no-grazing grassland (P < 0.05). In conclusion, night grazing and horseback riding tourism confer different selection pressures on grasslands, with night grazing resulting in a lower disturbance intensity than horseback riding tourism overall. Horseback riding tourism is an important factor that leads to soil sanding in the Bashang area; therefore, reducing horseback riding tourism is one of the main ways to maintain the sustainable use of the grassland ecosystem in the Bashang area of Hebei Province.