Desertification of the Typical Steppe Landscape Under Field/Stock-Farming Management: An Assessment in Wufuhao Settlement, Central Inner Mongolia

Desertification of the Eurasian steppe biome brings serious problems to the natural environment, socio-economy and people's lives on both local and global scales. In the present study, we focused on the field/pasture-boundary in geographical land-use patterns, distributed in the Typical steppe zone (Stipa krylovii/Cleistogenes squarrosa/Leymus chinensis-dominant steppe) of Inner Mongolia, China, and assessed landscape structure and fragility through the interdisciplinary research. A study site was established in Wufuhao Settlement (41°11'42"N, 111°34'24"E; 1.2kmx2.0km; ca. 1615m a.s.l.), and field surveys consisting of vegetation mapping and sociological censuses were carried out during the 2002-2007 period. The results are summarized as follows: (1) a gently undulating hilly-landform stretched out, (2) since a mass immigration in the 1910's, natural vegetation has been changed into fields (63.9% of the study site) and Populus/Ulmus-plantations (8.6%), (3) 139 vascular plant species were detected, including crops, weeds and halophilous plants, and (4) five types of herbaceous plant communities were distinguished by TWINSPAN, coupled with the difference in micro-scale landforms, cultivation and grazing by livestock. Consequently, in spite of approaches for the environmental restoration, soil erosion by water-flows and winds, salinization, and the degradation of the remaining grassland vegetation, most of which having been caused by unsustainable field/stock-farming management, resulted in an irreversible destruction of the indigenous steppe landscape.