Growing Season Ecosystem Respirations and Associated Component Fluxes in Two Alpine Meadows on the Tibetan Plateau

2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi-Wu Hu ◽  
Qin Wu ◽  
Guang-Min Cao ◽  
Dong Li ◽  
Rui-Jun Long ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Meadows

scholarly journals Restoration of Degraded Alpine Meadows Improves Pollination Network Robustness and Function in the Tibetan Plateau

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erliang Gao ◽  
Yuxian Wang ◽  
Cheng Bi ◽  
Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury ◽  
Zhigang Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Seed Set ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Management Regime ◽  
Pollination Network ◽  
And Function

Ecological restoration is widely used to mitigate the negative impacts of anthropogenic activities. There is an increasing demand to identify suitable restoration management strategies for specific habitat and disturbance types to restore interactions between organisms of degraded habitats, such as pollination. In the Tibetan Plateau, alpine meadows have suffered severe degradation due to overgrazing and climate change. Protecting vegetation by fencing during the growing season is a widely applied management regime for restoration of degraded grasslands in this region. Here, we investigated the effect of this restoration strategy on plant–pollinator communities and plant reproduction in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. We collected interaction and seed set data monthly across three grazed (grazed all year) and three ungrazed (fenced during growing season) alpine meadows in growing seasons of two consecutive years. We found ungrazed meadows produced more flowers and attracted more pollinator visits. Many common network metrics, such as nestedness, connectance, network specialization, and modularity, did not differ between grazing treatments. However, plants in ungrazed meadows were more robust to secondary species extinction than those in grazed meadows. The observed changes in the networks corresponded with higher seed set of plants that rely on pollinators for reproduction. Our results indicate that protection from grazing in growing seasons improves pollination network stability and function and thus is a viable restoration approach for degraded meadows.

Grazing exclusion increases soil CO2 emission during the growing season in alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau

2018 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 92-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Guo ◽  
Aidong Wang ◽  
A. Allan Degen ◽  
Bin Deng ◽  
Zhanhuan Shang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Co2 Emission ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Soil Co2 ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Grazing Exclusion ◽  
Soil Co2 Emission

scholarly journals Understanding habitat selection of the Vulnerable wild yak Bos mutus on the Tibetan Plateau

Oryx ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuchang Liang ◽  
Aili Kang ◽  
Nathalie Pettorelli
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Selection ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Species Distribution Modelling ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Habitat Availability ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Limited Effect ◽  
Distribution Modelling ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractWe tested a series of hypotheses on drivers of habitat selection by the Vulnerable wild yak Bos mutus, combining distribution-wide sighting data with species distribution modelling approaches. The results indicate that climatic conditions are of paramount importance in shaping the wild yak's distribution on the Tibetan Plateau. Habitat selection patterns were seasonal, with yaks appearing to select areas closer to villages during the vegetation-growing season. Unexpectedly, our index of forage quantity had a limited effect in determining the distribution of the species. Overall, our results suggest that expected changes in climate for this region could have a significant impact on habitat availability for wild yaks, and we call for more attention to be focused on the unique wildlife in this ecosystem.

scholarly journals Continuous Wetting on the Tibetan Plateau during 1970–2017

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huamin Zhang ◽  
Mingjun Ding ◽  
Lanhui Li ◽  
Linshan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Piecewise Linear ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Significant Trend ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Intensity Analysis ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index ◽  
Piecewise Linear Regression ◽  
Increasing Trend ◽  
Surrounding Areas

Based on daily observation records at 277 meteorological stations on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its surrounding areas during 1970–2017, drought evolution was investigated using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). First, the spatiotemporal changes in the growing season of SPEI (SPEIgs) were re-examined using the Mann–Kendall and Sen’s slope approach—the piecewise linear regression and intensity analysis approach. Then, the persistence of the SPEIgs trend was predicted by the Hurst exponent. The results showed that the SPEIgs on the TP exhibited a significant increasing trend at the rate of 0.10 decade−1 (p < 0.05) and that there is no significant trend shift in SPEIgs (p = 0.37), indicating that the TP tended to undergo continuous wetting during 1970–2017. In contrast, the areas surrounding the TP underwent a significant trend shift from an increase to a decrease in SPEIgs around 1984 (p < 0.05), resulting in a weak decreasing trend overall. Spatially, most of the stations on the TP were characterized by an increasing trend in SPEIgs, except those on the Eastern fringe of TP. The rate of drought/wet changes was relatively fast during the 1970s and 1980s, and gradually slowed afterward on the TP. Finally, the consistent increasing trend and decreasing trend of SPEIgs on the TP and the area East of the TP were predicted to continue in the future, respectively. Our results highlight that the TP experienced a significant continuous wetting trend in the growing season during 1970–2017, and this trend is likely to continue.

Autumn NDVI contributes more and more to vegetation improvement in the growing season across the Tibetan Plateau

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1098-1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaqiang Du ◽  
Ping He ◽  
Shifeng Fang ◽  
Weiling Liu ◽  
Xinjie Yuan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau

scholarly journals Evaporative cooling over the Tibetan Plateau induced by vegetation growth

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (30) ◽  
pp. 9299-9304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miaogen Shen ◽  
Shilong Piao ◽  
Su-Jong Jeong ◽  
Liming Zhou ◽  
Zhenzhong Zeng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Evaporative Cooling ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Surface Energy Budget ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Daily Maximum Temperature ◽  
Daily Maximum ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Vegetation Activity

In the Arctic, climate warming enhances vegetation activity by extending the length of the growing season and intensifying maximum rates of productivity. In turn, increased vegetation productivity reduces albedo, which causes a positive feedback on temperature. Over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), regional vegetation greening has also been observed in response to recent warming. Here, we show that in contrast to arctic regions, increased growing season vegetation activity over the TP may have attenuated surface warming. This negative feedback on growing season vegetation temperature is attributed to enhanced evapotranspiration (ET). The extra energy available at the surface, which results from lower albedo, is efficiently dissipated by evaporative cooling. The net effect is a decrease in daily maximum temperature and the diurnal temperature range, which is supported by statistical analyses of in situ observations and by decomposition of the surface energy budget. A daytime cooling effect from increased vegetation activity is also modeled from a set of regional weather research and forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model simulations, but with a magnitude smaller than observed, likely because the WRF model simulates a weaker ET enhancement. Our results suggest that actions to restore native grasslands in degraded areas, roughly one-third of the plateau, will both facilitate a sustainable ecological development in this region and have local climate cobenefits. More accurate simulations of the biophysical coupling between the land surface and the atmosphere are needed to help understand regional climate change over the TP, and possible larger scale feedbacks between climate in the TP and the Asian monsoon system.

Overgrazing leads to soil cracking that later triggers the severe degradation of alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 1243-1257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujie Niu ◽  
Huimin Zhu ◽  
Siwei Yang ◽  
Sujie Ma ◽  
Jianwei Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Soil Cracking

Soil cracking induced by overgrazing triggers the severe degradation or initiates the natural recovery of overgrazed alpine meadows on the Tibetan plateau?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujie Niu ◽  
Huimin Zhu ◽  
Siwei Yang ◽  
Jianwei Zhou ◽  
Bin Chu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Soil Compaction ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Eastern Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Patch Scale ◽  
Soil Cracking

&lt;p&gt;Soil cracking is an important feature of degraded terrestrial ecosystems, which cuts the closed and intact land, alters microtopography and also influences the dynamics of soil nutrients, water and heat, then further affect species distributions. Despite their importance, the patterns and causes of cracks related to overgrazing on alpine rangeland have rarely been reported previously, and the effects of cracks on soil properties and plant distributions are poorly understood. Therefore, we used a comprehensive cross-scale approach to investigate the distribution of crack-soil areas at the eastern Tibetan plateau (217 survey sites), then selected the grazing-induced parameter that&amp;#160;was closely related to&amp;#160;the cracks at a small scale, and quantified the effects of microtopography (raised areas and healed cracks) induced by cracking on the soil properties, and community composition at crack-mosaic patch from 2013-2018, then to evaluate the further&amp;#160;roles of soil cracking on alpine rangelands. The results showed that cracks only formed in the alpine meadow after overstocking. The increased soil compaction under overgrazing was closely related to soil cracking. On crack patch scale, the healed cracks facilitated nutrient and water enrichment due to the increasing surface roughness, then improved the plant communities. To some extent, healed crack mosaics are good for the conservation of water and nutrients. We provide key and easy-to-measure indicators to prevent overgrazing and cracking: a residual biomass greater than 65 g/m&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; and a height greater than 6 cm, and the soil compaction should be lower than 1044.26 &amp;#177; 188.88 kPa. We&amp;#160;should pay more attention to crack phenomena to prevent severe degradation. Overgrazed alpine meadows should be treated in the early phase of cracking and it may be able to return to optimum conditions in healthy rangelands. Otherwise, soil cracking becomes the most critical turning point in the process of alpine rangeland severe degradation.&lt;/p&gt;

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