Effect of Shallow tillage during different season on grassland vegetation and

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of spring and summer shallow tillage on grassland vegetation and soil in the Xilamuren region of North Yin Mountains to find the optimal technology for restoration of degraded grassland. This study showed the spring shallow tillage resulted in severe wind erosion and soil roughness and the summer shallow tillage did not cause wind erosion and soil roughness. The vegetation treated by the spring shallow tillage was sparse because many seedlings and rootstalk were dead or blew by wind, where annual herbs, such as Salsols collina, Corispermum declinatum, Chenopodum aristatum, Artimisia annua became dominant with cover of 30%; however, the vegetation cover treated by the summer shallow tillage was 62% because the Leymus chinensis grew rapidly after several rain and its important value was 0.7. At the end of growth season, the litters cover of grassland treated by the spring shallow tillage was below 10%, and the soil organic matter decreased by 33%; while the litters cover of grassland treated by the summer shallow tillage was 30%, and the soil organic matter increased by 8%. In spring of 2011, the recoverygreen of the spring shallow tillage was worse than that of the summer shallow tillage. This study suggested that the summer shallow tillage was better than spring shallow tillage.