Causes of alpine grassland degradation and its restoration strategy in Tianzhu County

Tianzhu County with vast alpine grassland is one of Gansu province's important pastoral areas. This study reviewed the causes of grassland degradation at broad and home, and then proposed that the fragile ecological environment was the intrinsic factors, which caused alpine grassland to degrade in the Tianzhu County. The human activities such as disturbance and unreasonable utilization were the major driver for grassland degradation, and global warming accelerated the grassland degradation. This study also proposed that the loss of livestock manure, allelopathy among plants and selfallelopathy were important causes of grassland degradation. Finally, this study put forward some measures to restore the degraded alpine grassland, which included rational carrying capacity and the increase of marketing rate for livestock, and include fencing and establishment of artificial grassland for improvement grassland. Meanwhile, the rodents and pests integrated control, intellectual resources, and extension of science and technology would be benefit the restoration of alpine grassland restoration.