How does the fragmentation of pasture affect grassland ecology?——Evidence from typical pastoral areas in China

•Introducing the GLB index provides an important basis for evaluating the micro-pasture ecology.•The hypothesis is supported by sample data from 456 herdsmen in 3 provinces.•Systematically summarizes the gospel and obstacles brought by pasture fragmentation.•3 adaptive grazing patterns to cope with the problem of fragmentation are discussed.•The robustness of the conclusions is verified by the IV “pasture redistribution”. Land fragmentation has a negative impact on agricultural production and human life and is an important indicator to measure pasture ecology. This study aims to reveal the relationship between the fragmentation of pasture and pasture ecology in typical pastoral areas of China. Introducingthe concept of grass-livestock balance (GLB) is to estimate the ecological protection status of the pasture, andthe revised pasture stock carrying capacity index is used to measure whether the GLB is maintained in the pasture. Meanwhile, the study reveals how to avoid the negative effects of pasture fragmentation through different grazing patterns. The results are as follows: (1) Pasture fragmentation is one of the important factors that prevent herder families from achieving GLB. (2) Rest grazing and rotational grazing can avoid the poor conditions caused by the fragmentation of pasture and achieve the GLB. Furthermore, rotational grazing can better alleviate the income pressure of herders than resting grazing. (3) Community-based nomadism has no significant effect on the GLB. That is possibly because communities integrate scattered land plots, but pasture roads, water and other public resources are poorly managed, and the “free-rider phenomenon” is common. Therefore, we argue that the pasture fragmentation problem should be solved using rest grazing and rotational grazing in different areas. Besides, more public service facilities should be built in the pastoral areas, and the government should strengthen their supervision to promote ecological restoration in pasture and increase herdsmen’s income.