Graminoids are typically the dominant plants in certain grassland communities, and their clonal growth is considered an important method of evaluating their adaptation to environmental disturbances. Whether disturbances caused by small burrowing herbivores influence clonal growth in graminoids is not well documented. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of disturbances by small burrowing herbivores, the plateau pika, on the clonal growth of the tussock-forming Kobresia pygmaea and the rhizomatous K. humilis across three sites. This study showed that disturbance by plateau pikas increased the shoot number, spacer number and tiller bud number per clonal fragment of both the tussock-forming K. pygmaea and the rhizomatous K. humilis across three sites. This study also showed that disturbance by plateau pikas increased the rhizome branch number, rhizome length, and rhizome bud number per clonal fragment of rhizomatous K. humilis at each site, while the effects of disturbance by plateau pikas on the rhizome branch number, rhizome length, and rhizome bud number per clonal fragment of the tussock-forming K. pygmaea were different among the three sites. These results suggested that disturbance by plateau pikas benefits for current and potential population recruitment in the tussock-forming K. pygmaea and the rhizomatous K. humilis due to the resulting higher shoot number and tiller bud number per clonal fragment.

类固醇通常是某些草地群落中的优势植物，它们的克隆生长被认为是评估其对环境干扰的适应性的重要方法。小型食草动物引起的干扰是否会影响类固醇的克隆生长，目前尚无充分的文献记载。进行了一项野外实验，研究了小型挖食性草食动物，高原鼠兔对三个地区的形成丛状小嵩草（Kobresia pygmaea）和根瘤菌K. humilis的克隆生长的影响。这项研究表明，高原鼠兔的干扰增加了形成丛状的鼠疫克氏杆菌和根茎的克隆片段的芽数，间隔数和分er芽数。K. humilis跨越三个站点。这项研究还表明，高原鼠兔的干扰增加了每个部位的根茎克氏杆菌克隆片段的根茎分支数，根茎长度和根茎芽数，而高原鼠兔的干扰对根茎分支数，根茎长度的影响。 ，和在三个位置之间的丛状形成的K. pygmaea的每个克隆片段的根茎芽数是不同的。这些结果表明，由于产生的每个克隆片段较高的芽数和分till芽数，高原鼠兔的干扰有益于形成丛状的K. pygmaea和根状的K. humilis的当前和潜在种群募集。