Resilience of revegetated grassland for restoring severely degraded alpine meadows is driven by plant and soil quality along recovery time: A case study from the Three-river Headwater Area of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

•Alpine plant and soil quality was improved by grassland cultivation.•Non-linear trajectory of plant and soil restoration existed in cultivated grassland.•Asynchrony existed between soil and plant quality along the recovery years.•Restoration of severely degraded alpine meadow took minimally 16–18 years.