**Abstract**

Grazing exclusion has been widely used for restoration of degraded grassland all over the world. Based on over a 30-year (from 1982 to 2011) vegetation survey and a 2-year (from 2013 to 2014) field decomposition experiment in Yunwu Mountain Grassland Nature Reserve on the Loess Plateau of China, responses of community structure and productivity and decomposition traits of dominant Stipa species (Stipa bungeana, Stipa grandis and Stipa przewalskyi) litters were determined to reveal the ecosystem cyclic process. Results showed that grassland coverage, plant density, Shannon-Wiener index and aboveground productivity changed in a hump pattern with peaks in 2002. Productivity was significantly positively correlated with mean annual temperature. The direction and magnitude about effects of climatic changes on productivity depended on phonological stages of plant community. Warming in early stage of growing season (April–May) contributed the increase of productivity, while temperature rise after the growing season (September–March in the next following year) was negatively correlated with productivity in the following year. Leaf litters of three Stipa species (S. bungeana, S. grandis and S. przewalskyi) had higher decomposition rates in the growing season than that in the nongrowing season. Nutrient-releasing pattern in litters of three Stipa species followed a different pattern: S. bungeana > S.grandis>S. przewalskyi. Considering productivity and decomposition traits, grazing exclusion promotes carbon sequestration of semiarid grassland, while adjustments in nutrient cycling might explain fluctuations of community structure.

**Keywords:** yunwu mountain, loess plateau, grazing exclusion, climate variation, decomposition, *Stipa*
