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Rangeland degradation in Northern China
very slowly and add to degraded rangeland. There is a village named Kuizhinao where
300 ha of the rangeland were converted and cultivated with potato and bean in 1956.
After a continuous drought in the following two years the converted cropland was
converted again into sandy land (Tang 1994, personal communication).
Table 2. Change of landuse pattem in Ordos from 1960 to 1985.
Otok Wushen Jungle
Landuse 1960 1985 1960 1985 1960 1985
Farmland 0.49 0.45 2.52 0.88 13.69 15.09
Woodland 0.37 1.21 3.79 12.98 5.67 16.62
Rangeland 86.85 83.44 62.45 52.04 62.32 35.32
Industry 1.16 0.64 0.21 0.22 0.66 0.70
Wetland 0.65 0.57 1.04 0.87 2.81 2.74
Bare land 8.90 13.70 27.23 33.01 13.39 29.54
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100
Besides being used as grazing land for cattle, sheep, and goats, Ordos rangeland is
also a source of many useful wood and non-wood products. During the rainy season
the rangeland produces up to 50 species of edible herbs (such as Scorzonera divari-
cata, Allium mongolicum) and mushrooms although herb and mushroom collection
has little effect on vegetation. The collection of fuelwood (mainly Artemisia ordosica,
Caragana intermedid) and medical plants largely contributes to rangeland degrada-
tion.
Although the living standard of local people has been greatly improved, and coal
and electricity has been widely available for household energy för the last three dec-
ades, a certain portion of the rural population in the Ordos region is still partly de-
pendent on firewood for cooking and heating due to traditional customs and lack of
money. The plants used as firewood are mainly shrubs and semi-shrubs. Shrubs are
usually cut with axes at about 10 cm above ground by either clear or selective felling,
but in many other cases roots are also excavated. It was estimated that an average of
2-3 ha of rangeland shrubs were cleared per household each year in westem Ordos in
the 1970s. In 1979 4,500 t of Artemisia ordosica were bumed in the region (Local
statistic data 1992) with considerable effects on rangeland structure.
Ordos rangeland pröduces many medical plants which are valued in both traditional
Chinese medicine and modem medical science. Ephedra sinica, Glycyrrhiza uralen-
sis, Bupleurum chinensis, and more than 40 other species of medical plants occur
widely in the rangeland communities of the region. Because the roots of medical
plants are usually the most valuable part, medicine gathering often means damage to
both the plants and the topsoil. According to this author’s investigation, gathering one
single Glycyrrhiza uraiensis will cause the damage of 4 m2 of soil.
DESIGMNG OF THE SPATIAL ECOLOGICAL SERIES PLOTS
The study area of this long-term ecological research project is the Ordos Plateau in
Inner Mongolia. The ultimate objective of the studies discussed here was to estimate
change of plant species composition and above-ground biomass of rangeland in the