• Jyoti Bhandari

• Xuebiao Pan

• Lizhen Zhang

• Pei We

• Changxiu Shao

• Dhruba Bijaya G.C.

• Que Yue Li

• Imran Mehmood

Abstract

Studies of the relationship between diversity and biomass are essential for the sustainable management and restoration of grasslands. The objective of this study was to examine the influence of C3 and C4 plants on species diversity and productivity relationship in the grassland of Inner Mongolia. Above ground dry matter, species richness and diversity were measured in semi-arid grassland at 20 sites in Inner Mongolia during the summers of 2007, 2008 and 2012. In this study, a total of 60 quadrates were located and study sites were divided into three categories (sites dominated by C3 plants, sites with a mixture of C3 and C4 plants and sites dominated by C4 plants) on the basis of above ground dry matter ratio of C3 and C4 plants. Above ground dry matter was the highest in sites dominated by C4 plants. At sites dominated by C3 and at C3 and C4 mixed sites a significant positive linear relationship between above ground dry matter with both species richness index and Simpson’s diversity index was recorded. However, in sites dominated by C4 plants, above ground dry matter is not significantly related to species richness and diversity. The results suggest that the sites dominated by C3 plants and the C3 and C4 mixed sites are important for diversity conservation in semi-arid grassland of Inner Mongolia.

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