Recently, the Innovation Team of Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration and Mitigation at the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, in collaboration with the Nagqu Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Pratacultural Science & Technology Research and Extension Center, has achieved significant progress in the research on ecological restoration of degraded alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. The related findings have been published in the internationally renowned journal - Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.

Affected by factors such as overgrazing, soil erosion, and nutrient depletion, vast areas of alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau have become degraded, leading to reduced plant productivity and impaired ecological functions. However, the long-term effectiveness of single restoration measures (i.e., reseeding or fertilization alone) is limited, and their impacts on soil ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF)_-the soil's ability to simultaneously maintain multiple ecological functions such as nutrient cycling and organic matter decomposition-remains unclear, thereby constraining the restoration efficiency.

The research team conducted a five-year in-situ experiment at the Nagqu Agro-Environmental Field Scientific Observation and Research Station under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The results indicate that the combination of reseeding with native grass species and organic fertilization not only significantly increases soil nutrients such as available phosphorus, maintains stable threshold element ratios of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus to achieve nutrient balance, and enhances key enzyme activities in carbon and nitrogen cycling as well as EMF-overcoming the drawbacks of single restoration measures (reseeding with native grass species/reseeding with forage oat/single application of organic fertilizer)-but also simultaneously improves plant community diversity and aboveground productivity, achieving the synergistic optimization of the "soil-microbe-plant" system. This study suggests that soil health should be incorporated into the assessment of degraded grassland restoration effects, providing a scientific scheme for the restoration of  degraded alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. It holds significant value for the protection and restoration of ecologically fragile areas and the enhancement of grassland ecosystem resilience.

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Nagqu City Science and Technology Plant Project.

Linkage: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2025.110140