Bitterant rather than salt increased the movement of yaks and plant biomass in alpine meadow

Background/Question/Methods

Grazing plays a key role in the sustainable development of grassland ecosystems, including optimizing livestock-vegetation interactions and regulating composition and function of plant species. The selective feeding behavior of livestock was attributed to the texture, taste and smell of different plant species. Previous studies have been reported that forage taste agents could affect the feed intake of livestock. However, Therefore, the mechanisms of how forage taste agent affects livestock grazing behavior and plant communities in grasslands are still not clear. We carried out this research in an alpine meadow on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The experiment consists of four treatments and four replicates, bitterant, salt, sweetener and water (control), which sprayed on a fenced area (45m×45m) in yak-grazed paddock.

Results/Conclusions

. The results were that: (1) Bitterant significantly increased the movement of yaks but decreased dry matter intake (DMI), despite salt to the contrary. (2) Bitterant significantly increased aboveground biomass of community, and forage taste agents significantly changed the proportion of different palatability plants in community. (3) Salt increased the proportion of annuals, dicotyledons, and low-growing plants in the community, while bitterant increased the proportion of C4 plants in the community. The effect of sweetener was not significant. (4) DMI was positively correlated with the biomass of low palatability (Group C) and low plants (＜10cm), but negatively correlated with other plants. The results provided a theoretical basis for using forage taste agents to control the grazing behavior of livestock and regulate the structure and function of plant community on grassland, and provided a method for optimizing the production of animal husbandry and maintaining the stability of plant community.