scholarly journals Monitoring grassland degradation and restoration using a novel climate use efficiency (NCUE) index in the Tibetan Plateau, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 131 ◽  
pp. 108208
Author(s):  
Ru An ◽  
Ce Zhang ◽  
Mengqiu Sun ◽  
Huilin Wang ◽  
Xiaoji Shen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Grassland Degradation ◽  
Use Efficiency

scholarly journals Community assembly and functional leaf traits mediate precipitation use efficiency of alpine grasslands along environmental gradients on the Tibetan Plateau

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaowei Li ◽  
Jianshuang Wu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Grasslands ◽  
Moisture Index ◽  
Use Efficiency

The alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau are sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. However, it is still unknown how precipitation use efficiency (PUE), the ratio of ANPP to precipitation, is related to community assembly of plant species, functional groups or traits for the Tibetan alpine grasslands along actual environmental gradients. We conducted a multi-site field survey at grazing-excluded pastures across meadow, steppe and desert-steppe to measure aboveground biomass in August, 2010. We used species richness, the Shannon diversity index, and cover-weighted functional group composition (FGC) of 1-xerophytes, 2-mesophytes, and 3-hygrophytes to describe community assembly at the species level; and chose community-level leaf area index (LAIc ), specific leaf area (SLAc ), and species-mixed foliar δ13C to quantify community assembly at the functional trait level. Our results showed that PUE decreased with increasing accumulated active temperatures (AccT) when daily temperature average is higher than 5°C, but increased with increasing climatic moisture index, which was demined as the ratio of growing season precipitation (GSP) to AccT. We also found that PUE increased with increasing species richness, the Shannon diversity index, FGC and LAIc ,decreased with increasing foliar δ13C, and had no relation with SLAc at the regional scale. Neither soil total nitrogen nor organic carbon has no influence on PUE at the regional scale. The community assembly of the Shannon index, LAIc and SLAc together accounted for 46.3 % of variance in PUE, whilst climatic moisture index accounted for 47.9 % of variance in PUE at the regional scale. This implies that community structural properties and plant functional traits can mediate the sensitivity of alpine grassland productivity in response to climate change. Thus, a long-term observation on community structural and functional changes is recommended for better understanding the response of alpine ecosystems to regional climate change on the Tibetan Plateau.

scholarly journals Pests, keystone species, and hungry ghosts: the Gesar epic and human-pika relations on the Tibetan Plateau

2020 ◽  
pp. 147447402096314
Author(s):  
Emily T. Yeh ◽  
Gaerrang
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Keystone Species ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Grassland Degradation ◽  
Plateau Pika ◽  
Political Ontology ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Asymmetric Power

For over half a century, the Chinese government has carried out large-scale poisoning campaigns on the Tibetan Plateau in an effort to exterminate the plateau pika, which is viewed as a pest that competes with livestock and causes grassland degradation. Since the 1990s, an ecological counternarrative has emerged in which pikas are keystone species rather than pests, and indicators rather than prime causes of grassland degradation. Virtually ignored in this debate are the ways in which Tibetan pastoralists understand and relate to pikas. We investigate Tibetan analytics of what pikas are, and what draws them to specific sites, based on interviews and observations in two pastoral communities, as well as readings of the Epic of King Gesar. Performed by bards since the twelfth century, the epic is grounded in the cultural milieu of Tibetan nomadic society and continues to be an important part of everyday life. As such, it shapes Tibetan analytics, a term we use to refer to forms of reason that cannot be reduced to ‘cultural belief.’ Because large numbers of pikas, as hungry ghosts, are drawn to places where the essence or fertility of the earth has been depleted, causing irritation to territorial deities, Tibetan practices include rituals to feed hungry ghosts, appease territorial deities, and return treasures to restore the fertility of the earth. Bringing Tibetan analytics together with proposals for political ontology, the article examines the ways in which these different ontologies, or practices of worlding, cooperate and conflict in a context of asymmetric power relations and non-liberal recognition of difference. This approach takes seriously both the agency of the nonhuman as well as human difference, while rejecting notions of rigidly bounded ontologies.

The patterns and mechanisms of precipitation use efficiency in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau

2020 ◽  
Vol 292 ◽  
pp. 106833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiancai Zhou ◽  
Miao Liu ◽  
Jian Sun ◽  
Yurui Li ◽  
Peili Shi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Grasslands ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Precipitation Use Efficiency

scholarly journals Grassland Subsidies Increase the Number of Livestock on the Tibetan Plateau: Why Does the “Payment for Ecosystem Services” Policy Have the Opposite Outcome?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6208
Author(s):  
Yan Yu ◽  
Ya Wu ◽  
Pan Wang ◽  
Yili Zhang ◽  
Liang Emlyn Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Rural Households ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Grassland Degradation ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Sustainable Livelihood ◽  
Payment For Ecosystem Services

The Grassland Ecological Protection Award Policy was implemented to address severe grassland degradation in China. This policy utilizes grassland subsidies as an incentive to control the number of livestock and has become the largest payment for ecosystem services program. Although many studies have analyzed the performance of this policy, it remains controversial as to whether grassland subsidies are effective at reducing the number of livestock; moreover, there is still a lack of quantitative studies on the roles of household livelihood assets and livelihood strategies in reducing the number of livestock. On the basis of the sustainable livelihood framework, this paper constructed an analytical framework to research how grassland subsidies affect the number of livestock under the effects of different livelihood capitals and local socioecological contexts. After choosing the Pumqu River Basin of the Tibetan Plateau as the research area, this study classified sample households on the basis of grassland sizes and then examined the effects of grassland subsidies on the number of livestock of different groups of rural households by considering livelihood capital. The results showed that (1) for all the sample households, grassland subsidies caused herdsmen to raise more livestock, which was contrary to the expectation of the grassland protection policy. The invalidation of grassland subsidies was mainly caused by the poor design and implementation of the policy at the local level. (2) In addition, for rural households with different grassland sizes, the subsidies could be effective in reducing the number of livestock for households with small grassland sizes while increasing the number of livestock for households with large grassland sizes. This indicates that some supporting policies and measures for households with smaller grassland sizes should be provided to stimulate the reduction in the number of livestock, and for households with large grassland areas, grassland circulation should be encouraged to promote the large-scale production of livestock husbandry. The finding of this study can help governments to formulate policies tailored towards appropriate subsidies for addressing grassland degradation.

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