Abstract:Plateau zoker (Myospalax baileyi) is a special subterranean rodent in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, which built very complex burrow system to live and breed and made a lot of aboveground mounds on the alpine rangeland ecosystem. The mounds not only have a negative impact on edible pasture yield and rangeland landscape but also affect soil physicochemical properties and biological characteristics seriously. At present, there have been many studies of the vertical soil properties on plateau zoker mounds at different soil depths, but little knowledge on surrounding areas that not covered by the heaped mounds. Selecting rodents-damaged alpine rangeland as the study object, the seasonal dynamics of the density of plateau zokor mounds, the physical and chemical properties of three soil layers (at 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, and 20-30 cm deep), the enzyme activities, and the thmicrobial population were closely monitored. While the seasonal correlation between the soil biological characteristics and the soil environmental conditions were analyzed from 2015 to 2017, in particular during the plant greenup period (GP) which normally takes place between April and May, the vigorous growth period (VGP) which occurs between July and August, and the withered period (WP) which occurs between October and November. The results indicated that: (1) The vegetation phenological phase, soil pH, and soil bulk density indices have shown a statistically significant increase with soil depth at the 0.05 level, whereas the decrease in soil water content, soil organic matter, total nitrogen, soil alkaline nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium, enzyme activity, and microbial quantity were statistically significant with the deepening of the soil layer at the 0.05 level of significance. (2) The vegetation phenological phase had a significant effect on the vertical distribution of soil nutrients at different soil layers, whereas the surrounding area that was not covered with the mounds by rodents activities. The impact of soil biological characteristics on the 10-20 cm soil layer was significantly greater than those of the 20-30 cm soil layer. (3) Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that correlations between soil biological characteristics and soil environmental conditions, within three vegetation phenological phases, were statistically significant at the 0.05 level. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that all indicators showed an obvious seasonal distribution trend. Moreover, the quantitative characteristics at different soil layers were as follows: WP > GP > VGP. This study reveals the effects of the seasonal activities of plateau zokor on the soil physicochemical properties, enzyme activities, and microbial population of the rodents-damaged alpine rangeland, and hope to provide a theoretical basis for the classification and restoration of the wetland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.