A RESEARCH ON THE DYNAMIC MONITORING SYSTEM FOR FORAGE-
LIVESTOCK BALANCE IN THE TEMPERATURE GRASSLAND OF CHINA
Li Bo (Porf. GRI, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China )
Shi Pei-Jun (Ass. Prof. Beijing Normal University, China )
Lin Xiao-Quan(Ass. Prof. GRI,Chinese Academy of Agricultural Scieuces,China)
ABSTRACT
In this paper, some principles and methods for the dynamic monitoring of forage-
livestock balance in the grazing system on the temperature grassland of china were
discussed, some related models for dyamic monitoring and production estimate by
remote sensing, the database and the technical system for dynamic monitoring were
designed. In this way, set up a operational system of the dynamic monitoring for
the grassland resources in large area, and provide a basis for the rangeland mana-
gement and the strategic decision.
Keywords: Temperature grassland, Forage-livestock Balance, Productivity Estimate
by Remote Sensing, Grassland Dynamic Monitoring System
PREFACE
The temperature rangeland area in China is about
3.5 million KM, and is the important basis for the
grazing husbandry. In this area, the grassland sea-
sons dynamic obviously. The herbages grow in a
manner of " one peak ". The Winter last longer,
and the withered period last for more than 6 mon-
thes. As the precipatation variability among years
is higher, it makes the grassland primary produc-
tivity fluctuation up and down, and the fluctuation
range reached more than 15%. or even reached
200% or more in the extremely drought year. With
the development of the grassland husbandry, the gra-
zing presure increased more and more. In recent 30
years, the grassland deteriorated in large area, the
productivity decreased, and the forage-livestock con-
tradiction get more seriously. While in the year with
drought or other disasters, a great number of the
livestocks died of lack forage in the Spring and
Winter. Therefore, the monitoring of balance status
between the forage and livestock in grazing ecosys-
tem is very importànt to regulate and manage the
grassland husbandry on a large scale. With the accu-
mulation of the ground observation data and the de-
velopment of the remote sensing technique make it
possible to realize the monitoring of the rangeland
condition in large area. For this reason, under the
support of the National Commission of the Science
and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture of P.
R. China, we carried out a research on dynamic mo-
nitoring of the forage-livestock balance for tempe-
rature grassland in northern China, and expect to
set up the operational system of the dynamic moni-
toring of the grassland resources through this
research.
I. PRINCIPLE AND METHODS
To prepare the dynamic monitoring system of the fo-
rage-livestock balance of grazing rangeland system,
the following theoretical bases will be observed in
this work.
1. The principle of ecosystem: the rangeland grazing
system is a completed ecosystem which was consist-
ed of environment-grass-livestock. The exchange of
energe and material each other determined its open-
ing character, that is, it is a kind of dissipation
structure; and the exchange of the emerge and mate-
rial among various subsystem determined its self-
composition characters. So, it could reserve the
substable structure under the status of away from
the equilibrium. Various subsystem affected one
another and closely related. Therefore, to monitor
the whole entirety may be begin from its parts, and
in turn,the monitoring for one part may reflect the
whole entirety. On the whole, this monitoring sys-
tem was finished on the basis of a through investi-
gation of the relationship among the environment ,
plant production and the animal production.
2. The zonal principle: The rangeland ecosystem, inf-
luenced by the factors of moisture, thermal and to-
pograph etc.,shows obviously the regularity of zona-
lity,which decides the limitation in the space, popu-
larity within a definite area and the difference of
the local parameter for the dynamic monitoring mo-
del. In addition to, the rangeland ecosystem also
were influenced by the land surface materials, non-
zonal factors such as ground water etc.,and the hu-
man disturbance, which increse the limitation of the
monitoring model and the inevitability in setting up
the regional parameter model.
3. The principle of bioperiodiosm and the fluctuation:
The grassland environment and the primary producti-
vity posesses obviously the seasonal change regularity.
As the yearly fluctuation of the productivity resulted
from the climatic fluctuation shows the uniformity in
a given area, the continuity with a given time span
and the amplified feature of the chained structure of
the ecological effect resulted from the fluctuation ,
which make it possible to set up the dynamic model
and to refer to and compare the analytical results.
In addition, as the character of non-defined of the
status resulted from the mutation and the divergence
of the rangeland ecosystem also make the dynamic
model posess the limitation in time and the possibi-
lity in analysis.
4. The scale effect and hierarchical theory: To moni-
toring the rangeland ecosystem, an important link is
to select the scale. The hierarchical composition is
the very scientific concepts of the scale,and the bio-
sphere itself is a ranked entirety with multiple levels,
and any one level among various levels may be the
attached or independent part to its upper level and
may be the entirety to its lower level. So, any local
impact to any level can certainly influence the whole.
Our monitoring to the rangeland ecosystem is on the
macroscopic scale, that is, on the higher grade hiera-
rchical level, but begin from the middle level,adapted
the county or banner as the administration unit area
and the subecoregion as the natural unit area.
5. Equivalent and complementarity among different
factors: In ecology, the surplus of certain factor may
remedy the insufficent of another factor, and the
