Protective Black-Saksaul Pasture Strips in the Central Asian Desert: Productive Ecosystem Function

Abstract

The protective black-saksaul pasture strips in the southern Central Asian deserts apparently increase the relative humidity, change the air and soil temperature regimes, reduce the wind speed, and prevent the melting of snow and the drying out of soils. Therefore, there are more favorable hydrothermal conditions for the growth and development of native wormwood ephemeral plant within the strip and the adjacent pastures lands. The plant species composition in the black-saksaul strip becomes more diverse; the ephemeral grass density is higher than that on the open pastures. The productive function of the black-saksaul strips includes two components: the production of black saksaul–fodder mass and the production of natural wormwood ephemeral pastures in the zone of the effects of positive environmental modification by the black-saksalul strips. Rational use of the black-saksaul pasture strips should involve pasture grazing twice a year: in spring, the sheep should graze on ephemera; the second grazing season on black saksaul (assimilated shoots and seeds) is in the autumn–winter period.