Chicken Farming in Grassland Increases Environmental Sustainability and Economic Efficiency

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053977

	Chicken Farming in Grassland Increases Environmental Sustainability and Economic Efficiency
	Liu, Meizhen ; Wang, Bingxue ; Osborne, Colin P.; Jiang, Gaoming
	2013
发表期刊	PLOS ONE
ISSN	1932-6203
卷号	8 期号:1
摘要	Background: Grassland degradation caused by overgrazing poses a threat to both animal husbandry and environmental sustainability in most semi-arid areas especially north China. Although the Chinese Government has made huge efforts to restore degraded grasslands, a considerable attempt has unfortunately failed due to an inadequate consideration of economic benefits to local communities. Methodology/Principal Findings: A controlled field experiment was conducted to test our hypothesis that utilizing natural grasslands as both habitat and feed resources for chickens and replacing the traditional husbandry system with chicken farming would increase environmental sustainability and raise income. Aboveground plant biomass elevated from 25 g m 22 for grazing sheep to 84 g m 22 for chicken farming. In contrast to the fenced (unstocked) grassland, chicken farming did not significantly decrease aboveground plant biomass, but did increase the root biomass by 60% (p<0.01). Compared with traditional sheep grazing, chicken farming significantly improved soil surface water content (0-10 cm), from 5% to 15%. Chicken farming did not affect the soil bulk density, while the traditional sheep grazing increased the soil bulk density in the 0-10 cm soil layer by 35% of the control (p<0.05). Most importantly, the economic income of local herdsmen has been raised about six times compared with the traditional practice of raising sheep. Ecologically, such an innovative solution allowed large degraded grasslands to naturally regenerate. Grasslands also provided a high quality organic poultry product which could be marketed in big cities. Conclusion/Significance: Chicken farming is an innovative alternative strategy for increasing environmental sustainability and economic income, rather than a challenge to the traditional nomadic pastoral system. Our approach might be technically applicable to other large degraded grasslands of the world, especially in China.
学科领域	Multidisciplinary Sciences
DOI	10.1371/journal.pone.0053977
收录类别	SCI
语种	英语
WOS关键词	INNER-MONGOLIA ; DESERTIFICATION ; SOIL ; ROOTS ; CHINA ; DUST
WOS研究方向	Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)
WOS记录号	WOS:000314021500032
出版者	PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
文献子类	Article
出版地	SAN FRANCISCO
资助机构	Strategic Priority Research Program-Climate Change: Carbon Budget and Relevant Issues of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Chinese Academy of Sciences) ; National Scientific Foundation of China(National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC))
作品OA属性	Green Submitted, gold, Green Published, Green Accepted
引用统计	被引频次：5[WOS] [WOS记录] [WOS相关记录]
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://ir.ibcas.ac.cn/handle/2S10CLM1/27837
专题	植被与环境变化国家重点实验室
作者单位	1.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Bot, State Key Lab Vegetat & Environm Change, Beijing, Peoples R China 2.Osborne, Colin P.] Univ Sheffield, Dept Anim & Plant Sci, Sheffield S10 2TN, S Yorkshire, England
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Liu, Meizhen,Wang, Bingxue,Osborne, Colin P.,et al. Chicken Farming in Grassland Increases Environmental Sustainability and Economic Efficiency[J]. PLOS ONE,2013,8(1).
APA	Liu, Meizhen,Wang, Bingxue,Osborne, Colin P.,&Jiang, Gaoming.(2013).Chicken Farming in Grassland Increases Environmental Sustainability and Economic Efficiency.PLOS ONE,8(1).
MLA	Liu, Meizhen,et al."Chicken Farming in Grassland Increases Environmental Sustainability and Economic Efficiency".PLOS ONE 8.1(2013).

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