be related to the so-called Little Ice Age or to more localized climate
variation. China is held to have experienced significant climate change,
with many chronological and regional variationsfluctuating between
warming and cooling trends, over a period of the last half millennium.^36
Yet, whatever the precise causes behind Inner Mongolia’s climate over the
past 350 years, water has been the primary limiting factor, as it generally
seems to be across grasslands.
An emphasis on the effects of climate aridity, particularly as opposed
to those of excessive grazing, reflects the influence of nonequilibrium
rangeland ecology.^37 The grasslands are certainly sensitive to both
anthropogenic and“ecogenic”(i.e., nonhuman) factors that can operate
synergistically. Consequently, there is a general consensus that China’s
grasslands in their entirety, which make up about 41 percent of the
country’s total area, have suffered varying degrees of degradation, espe-
cially in the twentieth century. Yet there is considerable disagreement over
just how, and in what proportions, these two factors interact. Some even
express skepticism concerning the fragility of grassland ecosystems.^38
Without asserting the irrelevance of all other ecosystem conditions, it
can be said that water is the prerequisite resource for growth of all grassland
biota that is in most limited or uncertain supply, regardless of how many
animals browse the land. So water’s highly variable abundance or scarcity
substantially determines how much grass, and by extension how much animal
forage and ultimately how many animals, there will be in a season. The
erratic, possibly nonequilibrium, nature of rainfall prohibits the emergence
of an equilibrium or sustainable steady-state consistent grass to grazer ratio.
As a result, grassland pastoralism has historically been critically
dependent on seasonal rains, a fact reflected in the regular weather reports
submitted to the Qing throne by its state herd officials. One such report
submitted in September 1748 by Vice Commander in Charge of the
Imperial Pastures Dasungga succinctly summarized vital connections
between grass, water, and livestock:
Although there has been little rain and it has yet to seep into the ground, snows for
2 months the previous spring have maintained the grasslands and water in the
grassy hillocks and along the riverbanks...From July 9 th to 15 th there was a slight
steady rain throughout all the herd areas. And although not comparable with grass
produced in abundant years, [the blades] were able to reach 3 – 4 urgun, which was
just enough to get by. Consequently, there is no possibility of a drought.^39