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December 30, 2004 Chinese Student Studies at NDSU Research Extension Center Guojie Wang traveled more than 6,000 miles to see how grazing affects the grasslands of central North Dakota. The student from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Botany in Beijing has spent the last six months working with researchers at North Dakota State University’s Central Grasslands Research Extension Center near Streeter. The center is in the midst of an ongoing study to determine the effect of grazing intensity on livestock performance and profitability and the potential for vegetation to regenerate. The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Botany is doing similar research at its Inner Mongolian Grassland Ecosystem Research Station. Paul Nyren, director of the Central Grasslands Research Extension Center, said the center is a good place for Wang to do his research because North Dakota’s Missouri Coteau region and Inner Mongolia have similar climates, rainfall patterns and plant communities. And although the center’s approximately 5,300 acres make it seem tiny, compared with Inner Mongolia’s hundreds of thousands of acres, it can provide valuable lessons. “What we learn on the Coteau can answer questions in much of the Great Plains,” Nyren said. The center’s study looks at the effects of light, moderate, heavy and extremely heavy grazing and no grazing. Wang’s research brought him to North Dakota under an agreement that Nyren and the Institute of Botany’s director signed in 2003. They pledged that the institute and center would share knowledge, host visiting scholars and work with each other to develop a closer relationship. As a result, the center also hosted Shiping Wang, an ecology professor at the institute, earlier this year. “Any information we can add to our knowledge is to our benefit,” Nyren said. Guojie Wang said he gained experience that will be valuable to him as he pursues a master’s degree, and eventually a doctorate. He has learned, among other things, that the effects of a severe drought on plant regrowth and the number of plant species is very similar to the effects of overgrazing, a major problem in Inner Mongolia. “It’s difficult to recover from overgrazing,” he said. His work also involved helping the center start a seed bank to determine what species of plants exist in lightly and extremely grazed trial pastures. That consisted of collecting 10 soil samples from each site late this fall. The samples came from an area about 10 inches by 10 inches square and 4 inches deep. Wang and center staff then sifted the soil through mesh to remove small stones, large roots and rhizomes, or rootlike stems, and divided each sample into to subsamples. They placed the first set of samples in flats and took them to the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service’s Northern Great Plains Field Laboratory in Mandan to be tended. The seedlings will be identified and counted. Lab staff plan to germinate the second set of samples in spring 2005. Nyren said a seed bank is an important tool in the study of changes that occur on grassland over time as the result of the grazing pressure. Under heavier grazing, for example, forage takes longer to regrow, and some species of plants disappear. Plants also develop shallower root systems, and rain and snowmelt runs off rather than soaking into the ground, he said. Wang heads back to China in early January, so he won’t see the results of his work. “If I have a chance, I’d like to come back,” he said. “In this area, the people are very nice. I made many friends. I can live here.” ### Source:
Paul Nyren, (701) 424-3606, p.nyren@ndsu.edu
Cutline: Visiting Chinese scholar Guojie Wang collects plant samples for a grazing intensity study he worked on earlier this year at the NDSU Central Grasslands Research Extension Center near Streeter. Click here for a higher resolution photo. (948Kb jpg) |
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