Abstract:Alpine meadow is a major vegetation community on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China. Kobresia parva alpine meadow is regarded as one of the forage bases for yak production because of its high content of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. However, the alpine meadow vegetation degraded as overstocking. Therefore, it is important to study the effects of yak-grazing on Kobresia parva alpine meadow community. In this study, above- and below-ground biomass and their allocation, absolute growth ration, and influence of grazing intensity on compensatory effect of different plant groups were investigated, based on yaks grazing trial for 2 years in Kobresia parva meadow. Our results showed that total above-ground biomass followed a decreasing trend with the increase of grazing intensity. And, the total above-ground biomass showed a significant differences in the warm-season grazing pasture (P<0.01), but not in the cold-season grazing pasture (P>0.05) among grazing intensity. With the increased grazing intensity, the below-ground biomass for different soil depth appeared significantly decreasing trend in both the warm- and the cold-season grazing pastures, and there was significant difference for below-ground biomass of each soil depth in the warm-season grazing pasture (P<0.05), but not in the cold-season grazing pasture (P>0.05) among different grazing intensities. Moreover, the rate of below-ground biomass to above-ground biomass decreased along the increasing of grazing intensity in the cold-season grazing pasture, but, the rate of below-ground biomass to above-ground biomass in the control plot was less than that in the light and moderate grazing plots, and it was higher than that in the heavy grazing plot in the warm-season grazing pasture. Additionally, the over-compensatory growth was existed in the different plant groups for each grazing intensity in the warm-season grazing pasture. Meanwhile, the over-compensatory growth of Cyperaceae and Gramineae plant groups appeared in August, but it appeared in June and July for forbs plant group. Moreover, the compensatory effect of Gramineae plant groups was higher than that of Cyperaceae plant group and forbs plant group. The compensatory effects were more significant in the light and moderate grazing intensities. Theover-compensatory growth also appeared for different plant groups in the cold-season grazing pasture, but the compensatory effect was non-significant. So, our results suggested that the modest grazing (the light and moderate grazing) would be beneficial to bring over-compensatory growth in the warm-season grazing pastures, and the heavy grazing would bring potentially disadvantage for vegetation stabilization in studied Kobresia parva meadow.