Plant community recovery trajectories under active restoration in degraded alpine grasslands

Active restoration strategies are essential to restore heavily degraded grasslands, as natural regeneration is critically compromised; however, the successional trajectory and time required for recovery remain poorly understood. Using a chronosequence and ordination regression‐based approach, we investigated plant community dynamics following active restoration of heavily degraded alpine grasslands on the Qinghai‐Tibetan plateau. The results revealed a nonlinear successional trajectory in community composition, driven largely by major contributing species. After 13 years of active restoration, the community approached but had not reached the non‐degraded state. Based on extrapolation beyond the observed time frame, an asymptotic model projected 46–63 years for full compositional recovery under current trajectory assumptions, providing a more conservative estimate than a linear model. Species diversity increased ( p < 0.001), while evenness recovery lagged. Total aboveground biomass declined ( p < 0.001), primarily due to reduced grass biomass. Our findings highlight the long‐term nature of recovery and provide critical knowledge for planning and evaluating active restoration strategies of heavily degraded alpine grasslands.