Quantitative Assessment of Aboveground Plant Production
and Its Components in Steppe Pasture

B. D. Abaturov and Yu. D. Nukhimovskaya

Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Leninskii pr. 33, Moscow, 119071 Russia

e-mail: abaturov@sevin.ru

Received March 3, 2013

Abstract—The production of aboveground plant matter was assessed in a deserted-steppe pasture in the north-
ern Caspian Depression. This pasture consists of vegetation consumed by animals, matter damaged by tram-
pling (fall), and standing biomass (living and dead standing plants). The consumed mass was estimated from
the amount of feces produced in the time of record and the digestion coefficient of the plant consumed. After
500 ha of the pasture were grazed by 850 sheep (1.7 individuals/ha) in the spring and summer (April through
September), 29% of the aboveground plant mass remained standing; the consumed biomass constituted 27%,
and the biomass destroyed by trampling was 44%. The total aboveground production was 2070 kg/ha, which
was the same as in a reserved site (2060 kg/ha), but less than in a pasture experiencing mild winter grazing
(2425 kg/ha).

Keywords: herbivorous mammals, sheep, semidesert pasture, reserved site, aboveground plant mass production,
standing plant biomass, consumed plant biomass, living plant biomass, standing dead plants, fall, litter, feces

DOI: 10.1134/S2079096113040021

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