Effects of excluding grazing on the vegetation and soils of degraded sparse-elm grassland in the Horqin Sandy Land, China

•Overgrazed, semi-arid pasture in a Chinese sandy land had become degraded.•Stock grazing and its timing were managed in an exclosure experiment for 10 years.•Exclosure changed plant species composition, increasing diversity, cover and height.•Nutrients, water content and fraction of fine particles in the soil also increased.•Summer-only grazing was a good compromise for biodiversity and economic production. Livestock grazing is a crucial cause of vegetation degradation and desertification in sandy lands. The sparse-elm grassland of Horqin Sandy Land, China has suffered severe degradation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Management to exclude grazing is often necessary for ecological restoration, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. We report effects on vegetation and soils in a 10-year experiment to exclude livestock, completely or seasonally, in comparison with a continuously grazed area in Horqin. Complete exclusion of grazing and restriction of grazing to summer both led to significantly increased plant cover and density relative to the grazed control. Species richness increased, reflected in higher Shannon-Wiener indices; only complete exclusion increased the Simpson diversity index, whereas Pielou evenness was significantly lowest under seasonal grazing. Exclosure treatments were also associated with improved soil texture, and increased water retention, available nitrogen, total nitrogen, total carbon and total phosphorus. Soil pH and C/N ratio were highest under the seasonal grazing regime. The results indicated that exclosure management indeed improved biodiversity and ecosystem services in an erosion-prone region. Although total exclosure was most effective in restoration of degraded sparse-elm grassland, seasonal grazing management was highly beneficial and represented a good compromise with resource utilization and economic development.