As the largest terrestrial ecosystem in China, grassland provides crucial ecological functions for water conservation, soil retention, wind prevention, sand fixation, nitrogen storage, carbon fixation, and biodiversity conservation. Ecological restoration of grassland plays an important role in ecosystem governance. Grass seeds are the "chip" for grassland ecological restoration and related industry development.
The Research Center of Grassland was established in 2019 with the objective to support the major scientific and technological development of grassland ecological construction and high-quality development of grass seed industry. As for now, the Center has undertaken over 20 projects on grassland ecosystem restoration. The Center has been approved as the Technology Research Center of Grassland Restoration Germplasm Resource Utilization Engineering, and its Grassland Resources and Utilization Team has been selected into the fourth batch of forestry and grassland science and technology innovation teams.
Innovative utilization of grass germplasm resources
In terms of innovative utilization of grass germplasm resources, world’s largest buffalo grass germplasm resource preservation bank has been established, and a backbone parent group was built to adapt to different climate zones; problems such as insufficient discovery of excellent germplasm and blind selection of breeding parents have been solved. The Center pioneered the technology of high-yield buffalo grass seed production technology based on sex ratio control and rapid seed dormancy breaking, to improve utilization efficiency. It established 22 nationwide ecological testing sites, cultivated 46 new strains, and developed 4 national-level approved varieties; a total of 1,700 mu (280 acres) of seed breeding demonstration sites and 1,000 mu (165 acres) of seedling breeding bases have been established. The "high-efficiency buffalo grass breeding technology" has reached the world's advanced level in the same field and won the Second Prize for the Liangxi Science and Technology Progress Award.
Grassland protection and ecological restoration
In terms of grassland protection and ecological restoration, advanced technologies such as stable isotope tracing are used to study the spatiotemporal pattern of water use and photosynthetic physiological characteristics of shrubs and grasses. From the perspective of the spatiotemporal pattern of vegetation water use, the changing characteristics of interspecific relationships in the community are analyzed to elucidate the process and recovery mechanisms of shrubification of grassland. On-site community surveys and soil seed bank greenhouse germination experiments were used to explore the impact of different shrubification stages of alpine meadows on the soil seed bank. Through continuous monitoring of biotic and abiotic factors, the impact process of shrubification on the seed bank and the regulatory mechanism before and after the threshold jump was revealed, to provide a new perspective for elucidating the mechanism of shrubification. A meta-analysis method was applied to explore the impact of reseeding native grass species on plants and soil characteristics, and to reveal the response of grassland plants and soil properties to reseeding under different grassland types, sowing methods, and restoration period, providing a theoretical basis for improving reseeding under different geographical conditions.
High-quality development of grassland and grass seed industry
In terms of promoting the high-quality development of grassland and grass seed industry, the Center has organized three academic seminars, with the support of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. Arranged by the Department of State-owned Forest Farms and Seedlings Management of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the Center hosted the 2023 national grass variety regional experiment training to promote the standardization of national grass variety regional experiment. Under the guidance of the Department of State-owned Forest Farms and Seedlings Management and the Department of Grassland of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the Center and the National (Hefei) Seedling and Flower Trading Information Center jointly compiled and released the 2023 and 2024 Annual Report on National Grass Seed Supply and Demand to promote the construction of information platform on China’s grass seed industry. Meanwhile, the Center has hosted many side-events on grass seed industry during China Forestry Academic Conference, China Forestry Youth Academic Annual Conference, contributes to the high-quality development of the grassland and grass seed industry through scientific and technological innovation and exchanges.
