In agro-pastoral transitional zones, monitoring vegetation fraction coverage (FVC) and understanding its relationship with land use and climate change are crucial for comprehending how complex land-use/land-cover change (LUCC) improves ecological restoration and land management. This study focuses on the agro-pastoral transitional zone of Inner Mongolia, aiming to analyze vegetation cover changes from 2000 to 2020 using the Mann–Kendall (MK) significance test, Theil–Sen median trend analysis, and coefficient of variation (CV) analysis. Additionally, the study explores the impacts of LUCC, precipitation, and temperature on vegetation cover using methods such as geo-detector, pixel-based statistical analysis, and univariate linear regression. Based on the PLUS land-use prediction model and linear regression results, vegetation cover was simulated under different land-use scenarios for the future. The main findings are as follows: first, from 2000 to 2020, the spatial distribution of vegetation cover in the study area showed a distinct pattern of higher vegetation cover in the east compared to the west, with significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Although the overall vegetation cover slightly increased, there were notable differences in the trend across regions, with some areas experiencing a decrease in FVC. Second, LUCC is the most significant explanatory factor for vegetation cover changes, and the interactions between LUCC and other factors have a particularly notable impact on vegetation cover. Third, scenario simulations based on the PLUS model indicate that, by 2040, vegetation cover will perform optimally under the farmland protection and sustainable development scenarios. Particularly under the farmland protection scenario, the conversion of cropland, forestland, and grassland is notably suppressed. In contrast, the unmanaged natural development scenario will lead to a decline in vegetation cover. The results of this study show that vegetation cover in the agro-pastoral transitional zone of Inner Mongolia exhibits substantial fluctuations due to land-use change. Future ecological restoration policies should incorporate land-use optimization to promote vegetation recovery and address ecological degradation.

Ecological restoration has a positive impact on global climate change. How plant-soil stores carbon in degraded grassland ecological restoration requires long-term monitoring and support. To reveal the dynamics of plant-soil carbon storage in the succession process of ecological restoration, compare the effects of artificial interference and natural restoration, and determine the impact of climate change and biodiversity on vegetation soil carbon storage, we conducted a study in National Grassland Natural Park, which is located on the southern foot of the Yinshan Mountains in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. Based on long restoration chronosequences (2012–2022), using a space-for-time substitution approach and one-way ANOVA tests, Pearson correlation and structural equation modeling were used to investigate the interactions among these various factors. The results indicated that the carbon storage of aboveground vegetation first increased, and then, decreased with time. The underground root carbon storage and soil carbon storage at 0–10 cm and 20–30 cm first increased, then decreased, and finally, stabilized. The highest soil carbon storage (0–30 cm) was 102.11 t/ha in 2013, which accounted for 96.61% of the total organic carbon storage. The Shannon–Wiener index, individual number of species, and surface root carbon storage (0–10 cm) significantly increased the carbon storage of surface soil (0–10 cm) (p < 0.05). Compared to natural restoration, artificial restoration over seven years decreased soil carbon storage at 0–30 cm and underground root carbon storage at 0–10 cm (p < 0.05). Consequently, combining artificial restoration with natural restoration can help in establishing a more stable ecosystem faster and in increasing the carbon storage of the ecosystem. It is an effective management measure to promote grassland restoration in arid areas. Also, climate (MAT, MAP) change was closely correlated with plant-soil carbon storage.

Introduction: Affected by global climate warming and changing rainfall patterns, the degree of soil desiccation in arid grasslands has increased and soil wind erosion has become a major environmental concern. Understanding and controlling the characteristics of sand flux and wind erosion caused by the degradation of grassland vegetation, as well as their changing patterns, has become a top priority in combating grassland degradation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to clarify the extent of wind erosion in desert grasslands and its influencing factors in order to provide a theoretical basis and data support for the restoration of grassland vegetation and the sustainable development of grassland livestock production.Methods: Use of SAS and Origin statistical software to perform multifactorial analysis of variance on variables such as year, stocking rate, meteorological conditions and wind-sand flux to determine the degree of influence of different factors on sand flux and the magnitude of interactions among different factors.Results and discussion: The results showed that wind-sand flux was higher when rainfall was low and stocking intensity was high. Specifically, the wind-sand flux increased by 50.3% and 83.6% in the moderate and high grazing treatments, respectively, compared to the control. The data obtained also showed that there was a significant interaction between climate and grazing intensity, suggesting that an increase in one factor may attenuate the differences in wind-sand flux at different levels of other factors. There is likely to be a threshold effect of stocking rate of moderate grazing on the variation of wind-sand flux influenced by different factors. In summary, the factors affecting wind-sand flux in the arid desert steppe are numerous and complex, with stocking rates below moderate grazing being key to reducing wind-sand flux.

To examine the effect of litter on ANPP and species composition (using ground cover) in a Desert Steppe community by removing or adding litter, during plant dormancy, in a single event in either fall or spring. Litter was removed or added in three intensity treatments (heavy, moderate, control—undisturbed) as the main plot and season (fall or spring) as the secondary treatment in a split-plot design with five replications. The experiments were repeated in each of 5 years while three of those were resampled twice. The year effect was analyzed by classifying them into high or low precipitation categories and including those in the statistical model. We found few treatment effects one year after treatment and no persistent effect. Therefore, we focus our examination on the first year only. The total ANPP of individual plant types, or their proportions, were not affected by litter treatment or its interaction with season of treatment or precipitation category. Only the ground cover of selected species was influenced by the treatment. The ground cover of Stipa breviflora was greater with heavy litter removal in fall but unaffected by litter removal in spring while Neopallasia pectinata had a greater cover with moderate or heavy removal in years when precipitation was low. Litter addition resulted in a greater ground cover of Neopallasia pectinata and reduced the cover of Convolvulus ammannii in years of low precipitation. The marginal effectiveness of litter treatments on the plan community in the Desert Steppe suggests that it need not be a factor for consideration in grazing management.

A high stocking rate can intensify wind erosion in grasslands, and strong wind can carry away soil surface particles and their nutrients, which leads to soil barrenness. In this research, the dust flux, total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN) contents and fluxes of aeolian sediment were computed in the non-growing season (mid-October to mid-April of the following year) and growing season (mid-April to mid-October) from 2018 to 2020 at a long-term grazing gradient experiment platform and wind-erosion monitoring experiment in a desert steppe in Inner Mongolia, China. The results were as follows, 1) with the increasing of stocking rate, the fluxes of aeolian sediment at 10 cm (H10), 30 cm (H30), and 100 cm (H100) were greatly increased ( P <0.05). Aeolian sediment fluxes followed the order control (CK) < light stocking rate (LG) < moderate stocking rate (MG) < heavy stocking rate (HG). 2) TC and TN contents of aeolian sediment reflected stocking rates and followed the order CK>LG>MG>HG, and also reflected aeolian sediment collection height, as H10P>0.05). TC and TN contents in HG at different heights reduced by 31.1% and 25.9% on average in comparison to the CK in the non-growing season, and by 30.1% and 25.0% in the growing season. TC loss was higher than TN loss. Overall, as stocking rate increased, wind erosion increased, leading to the loss of soil nutrients and significant loss of the carbon pool in this desert steppe.