Biomass and nutritive components of subalpine meadow on Mt.Xiaowutai

Based on the fieldwork and quantity analysis, the relationships of herbage yield and nutritive value between selected environmental factors in the subalpine meadow of Mt. Xiaowutai were studied. The main results are shown as follows:1) Herbage yield increased with elevation from 2 200 m to 2 600 m and then declined until 2 800 m, which showed high correlation with the species diversity, and the effective temperature and soil nutrition content could partly explain the result; 2) The Canonical Correspondence Analysis suggested that the amount of heat and soil organic content, also with soil wetness index inflected the quality of meadow in Mt. Xiaowutai; 3) Most of the plants improved their coldresistance and adaptability to stressful environments by increasing CP, fiber content and caloric value. For grazing, the quality of plants in shady slope was better than that of others, but leguminous plants were inadequate to meet the needs of grazing cattle for growth.