Incorporating measures of grassland productivity into efficiency estimates for livestock grazing on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in China

2016 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Huang ◽  
Bernhard Bruemmer ◽  
Lynn Huntsinger
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
Grassland Productivity

scholarly journals Reviews and syntheses: How do abiotic and biotic processes respond to climatic variations at the Nam Co catchment (Tibetan Plateau)?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sten Anslan ◽  
Mina Azizi Rad ◽  
Johannes Buckel ◽  
Paula Echeverria Galindo ◽  
Jinlei Kai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Nam Co ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
Climatic Oscillations ◽  
Lake Nam Co

Abstract. The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is the largest alpine plateau on Earth and plays an important role in global climate dynamics. On the TP, climate change is happening particularly fast, with an increase in air temperature twice the global average. The particular sensitivity of this high mountainous environment allows the observation and tracking of abiotic and biotic feedback mechanisms. Closed lake systems, such as the Nam Co on the central TP represent important natural laboratories for tracking past and recent climatic oscillations, as well as geobiological processes and interactions within their respective catchments. This review gives an interdisciplinary overview of modern and paleoenvironmental changes, focusing on Nam Co as model system. In the catchment area, the steep rise in air temperature forced glaciers to melt, leading to a rise in lake levels and changes in water chemistry. Some studies base their conclusions on inconsistent glacier inventories but an ever-increasing deglaciation and thus higher water availability have persisted over the last decades. The enhanced water availability causes translocation of sediments, nutrients and dissolved organic matter to the lake, as well as higher carbon emissions to the atmosphere. The intensity of grazing has a significant effect on CO2 fluxes, with moderate grazing enhancing belowground allocation of carbon while adversely affecting the C-sink potential through reduction of above- and subsurface biomass at higher grazing intensities. Furthermore, increasing pressure from human activities and livestock grazing are enhancing grassland degradation processes, thus shaping biodiversity patterns in the lake and catchment. The environmental signal provided by taxon-specific analysis (e.g. diatoms and ostracods) in Nam Co have revealed profound climatic fluctuations between warmer/cooler and wetter/drier periods since the late Pleistocene and an increasing input of freshwater and nutrients from the catchment in recent years. Based on the reviewed literature, we outline perspectives to further understand the effects of global warming on geo- and biodiversity and their interplay in the Lake Nam Co, which acts as a case study for potentially TP-wide processes that are currently shaping the earth’s future.

scholarly journals Sedimentary ancient DNA reveals a threat of warming-induced alpine habitat loss to Tibetan Plateau plant diversity

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sisi Liu ◽  
Stefan Kruse ◽  
Dirk Scherler ◽  
Richard H. Ree ◽  
Heike H. Zimmermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Habitat Loss ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
Alpine Habitat ◽  
Taxa Richness ◽  
Alpine Habitats ◽  
Forest Belts ◽  
Time Series Approach ◽  
Total Plant

AbstractStudies along elevational gradients worldwide usually find the highest plant taxa richness in mid-elevation forest belts. Hence, an increase in upper elevation diversity is expected in the course of warming-related treeline rise. Here, we use a time-series approach to infer past taxa richness from sedimentary ancient DNA from the south-eastern Tibetan Plateau over the last ~18,000 years. We find the highest total plant taxa richness during the cool phase after glacier retreat when the area contained extensive and diverse alpine habitats (14–10 ka); followed by a decline when forests expanded during the warm early- to mid-Holocene (10–3.6 ka). Livestock grazing since 3.6 ka promoted plant taxa richness only weakly. Based on these inferred dependencies, our simulation yields a substantive decrease in plant taxa richness in response to warming-related alpine habitat loss over the next centuries. Accordingly, efforts of Tibetan biodiversity conservation should include conclusions from palaeoecological evidence.

scholarly journals Climate Variability Rather Than Livestock Grazing Dominates Changes in Alpine Grassland Productivity Across Tibet

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Li ◽  
Jianshuang Wu ◽  
Yunfei Feng ◽  
Ben Niu ◽  
Yongtao He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Grazing Intensity ◽  
Relative Effect ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
Alpine Grassland ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Grasslands ◽  
Grassland Productivity

Alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau, being vulnerable to environmental and anthropogenic changes, have experienced dramatic climate change and intensive livestock grazing during the last half-century. Climate change, coupled with grazing activities, has profoundly altered alpine grassland function and structure and resulted in vast grassland degradation. To restore degraded grasslands, the Central Government of China has implemented the Ecological Security Barrier Protection and Construction Project since 2008 across the Tibetan Autonomous Region. However, the relative effect of climate change and grazing activities on the variation in alpine grassland productivity is still under debate. In this study, we quantified how aboveground net primary production (ANPP) varied before (2000–2008) and after (2009–2017) starting the project across different alpine grasslands and how much variance in ANPP could be attributed to climate change and grazing disturbance, in terms of temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and grazing intensity. Our results revealed that Tibet’s climate got warmer and wetter, and grazing intensity decreased after starting the project. Mean ANPP increased at approximately 81% of the sites, on average from 27.0 g C m–2 during 2000–2008 to 28.4 g C m–2 during 2009–2017. The ANPP positively correlated with annual temperature and precipitation, but negatively with grazing intensity for both periods. Random forest modeling indicated that grazing intensity (14.5%) had a much lower influence in controlling the dynamics of grassland ANPP than precipitation (29.0%), suggesting that precipitation variability was the key factor for alpine grassland ANPP increase across Tibet.

Changes in rangeland cover associated with livestock grazing in Altun National Nature Reserve, northwest Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xukun Su ◽  
Shikui Dong ◽  
Shiliang Liu ◽  
Yu Wu ◽  
Haidi Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Nature Reserve ◽  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
National Nature Reserve ◽  
Northern Edge ◽  
Grazing Area ◽  
Inspection Station ◽  
Aggregation Analysis ◽  
Land Use And Cover

The Altun National Nature Reserve, located on the northern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of China, is one of 35 most important biodiversity sites worldwide. Land-use and cover change are affecting this alpine ecosystem. A supervised classification was used to classify types containing meadow, steppe, sparse rangeland, and non-rangeland environments based on Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery data. By conducting an aggregation analysis using a Geographic Information System an analysis of changes from 1990 to 2010 was conducted. The results demonstrated that sparse rangeland was the most widespread vegetation type and underwent significant changes over the period. The area of sparse rangeland increased by 64.4 km2 from 1990 to 1995 and by 49.3 km2 from 1995 to 2000. However, the area of sparse rangeland decreased by 99.2 km2 from 2000 to 2005 and by 247.4 km2 from 2005 to 2010. The major areas of change were primarily located in the vicinities of the Yishakipati central inspection station, the Kardun inspection station, and Ayakkum, Aqqikkol and Jingyu Lakes. There was a positive correlation between the change in area of sparse rangeland and the amount of livestock grazing. The change in non-rangeland was significantly negatively correlated with the amount of livestock grazing during the period in the grazing area. Appropriate livestock grazing may be essential for promoting the resilience of the predominant ecosystems and key habitats of wildlife in the Altun National Nature Reserve.

scholarly journals Reviews and syntheses: How do abiotic and biotic processes respond to climatic variations in the Nam Co catchment (Tibetan Plateau)?

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1261-1279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sten Anslan ◽  
Mina Azizi Rad ◽  
Johannes Buckel ◽  
Paula Echeverria Galindo ◽  
Jinlei Kai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Nam Co ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations

Abstract. The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is the largest alpine plateau on Earth and plays an important role in global climate dynamics. On the TP, climate change is happening particularly fast, with an increase in air temperature twice the global average. The particular sensitivity of this high mountain environment allows observation and tracking of abiotic and biotic feedback mechanisms. Closed lake systems, such as Nam Co on the central TP, represent important natural laboratories for tracking past and recent climatic changes, as well as geobiological processes and interactions within their respective catchments. This review gives an interdisciplinary overview of past and modern environmental changes using Nam Co as a case study. In the catchment area, ongoing rise in air temperature forces glaciers to melt, contributing to a rise in lake level and changes in water chemistry. Some studies base their conclusions on inconsistent glacier inventories, but an ever-increasing deglaciation and thus higher water availability have persisted over the last few decades. Increasing water availability causes translocation of sediments, nutrients and dissolved organic matter to the lake, as well as higher carbon emissions to the atmosphere. The intensity of grazing has an additional and significant effect on CO2 fluxes, with moderate grazing enhancing belowground allocation of carbon while adversely affecting the C sink potential through reduction of above-surface and subsurface biomass at higher grazing intensities. Furthermore, increasing pressure from human activities and livestock grazing are enhancing grassland degradation processes, thus shaping biodiversity patterns in the lake and catchment. The environmental signal provided by taxon-specific analysis (e.g., diatoms and ostracods) in Nam Co revealed profound climatic fluctuations between warmer–cooler and wetter–drier periods since the late Pleistocene and an increasing input of freshwater and nutrients from the catchment in recent years. Based on the reviewed literature, we outline perspectives to further understand the effects of global warming on geodiversity and biodiversity and their interplay at Nam Co, which acts as a case study for potentially TP-level or even worldwide processes that are currently shaping high mountain areas.

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