scholarly journals Quantifying Grass Coverage Trends to Identify the Hot Plots of Grassland Degradation in the Tibetan Plateau during 2000–2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 416
Author(s):  
Yaqun Liu ◽  
Changhe Lu
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Grazing Intensity ◽  
Point Pattern ◽  
Grassland Restoration ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Grassland Degradation ◽  
Rivers And Lakes ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
The Government ◽  
Animal Grazing

Grassland covers 54% of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and suffered overgrazing and degradation problems during past decades. To alleviate these problems, a series of policy measures have been implemented during recent two decades and inevitably caused changes of the grassland. To this end, this study quantitatively analyzed the grassland changes and the effects of reduced grazing intensity, and identified the hot plots of grassland degradation in the TP during 2000–2019. The grassland status was indicated by the Fractional Vegetation Cover in the green grass period (GP), i.e., FVCGP, and its changes and spatial variations were detected by analyzing the FVCGP trends and their distribution, using the Mann–Kendal, Sen’s Slope, and ArcGIS buffering methods, and data of the MOD13Q1 Collection 6 products and other sources. The results showed that 62.12% of the grasslands were significantly increased in the FVCGP, and 28.34% had no apparent changes. The remaining 9.54% of the grassland significantly decreased in the FVCGP, mainly occurring in the areas nearby roads, rivers, and lakes, and distributed mostly in a point pattern. Of the total FVCGP decreased grassland area, 27.03% was clustered and identified as the hot plots of grassland degradation in six main regions. Decreased grazing intensity and increased precipitation contributed to the increase of grassland FVC in the TP, while local overgrazing could be the main cause of the FVC decrease. To strength the grassland restoration in the TP, the government supports and supervision should be enhanced to further mitigate the grassland pressure of animal grazing, particularly in the hot plot areas of degradation.

Melting Ice Rivers

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Colopy
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Mount Everest ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government

From a remote outpost of global warming, a summons crackles over a two-way radio several times a week: . . . Kathmandu, Tsho Rolpa! Babar Mahal, Tsho Rolpa! Kathmandu, Tsho Rolpa! Babar Mahal, Tsho Rolpa! . . . In a little brick building on the lip of a frigid gray lake fifteen thousand feet above sea level, Ram Bahadur Khadka tries to rouse someone at Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology in the Babar Mahal district of Kathmandu far below. When he finally succeeds and a voice crackles back to him, he reads off a series of measurements: lake levels, amounts of precipitation. A father and a farmer, Ram Bahadur is up here at this frigid outpost because the world is getting warmer. He and two colleagues rotate duty; usually two of them live here at any given time, in unkempt bachelor quarters near the roof of the world. Mount Everest is three valleys to the east, only about twenty miles as the crow flies. The Tibetan plateau is just over the mountains to the north. The men stay for four months at a stretch before walking down several days to reach a road and board a bus to go home and visit their families. For the past six years each has received five thousand rupees per month from the government—about $70—for his labors. The cold, murky lake some fifty yards away from the post used to be solid ice. Called Tsho Rolpa, it’s at the bottom of the Trakarding Glacier on the border between Tibet and Nepal. The Trakarding has been receding since at least 1960, leaving the lake at its foot. It’s retreating about 200 feet each year. Tsho Rolpa was once just a pond atop the glacier. Now it’s half a kilometer wide and three and a half kilometers long; upward of a hundred million cubic meters of icy water are trapped behind a heap of rock the glacier deposited as it flowed down and then retreated. The Netherlands helped Nepal carve out a trench through that heap of rock to allow some of the lake’s water to drain into the Rolwaling River.

Grazing intensity alters soil respiration in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan plateau

2004 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangmin Cao ◽  
Yanhong Tang ◽  
Wenhong Mo ◽  
Yuesi Wang ◽  
Yingnian Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Soil Respiration ◽  
Alpine Meadow ◽  
Grazing Intensity ◽  
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.

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.

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

Tracing the sources of nitrate in the rivers and lakes of the southern areas of the Tibetan Plateau using dual nitrate isotopes

2019 ◽  
Vol 658 ◽  
pp. 132-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingming Hu ◽  
Yuchun Wang ◽  
Pengcheng Du ◽  
Yong Shui ◽  
Aimin Cai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Nitrate Isotopes ◽  
Rivers And Lakes

scholarly journals Households’ Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for Agriculture on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinjun He ◽  
Jianzhong Yan ◽  
Anyi Huang ◽  
Hong Zhou ◽  
Ya Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Agricultural Insurance ◽  
Sowing Time ◽  
The Government

Abstract How agriculture can better adapt to climate change has been a key topic of interest for scholars. This study provides insights from the eastern agricultural region of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). The Yellow River-Huangshui River valley (YHV) is an important food-producing region on the TP. The agricultural production of small households has been affected by significant climate change and by a series of interventions on the part of the local government. Five main adaptation strategies adopted by households include crop rotation (86.71%), increasing agricultural inputs (74.21%), changing the sowing time of crops (61.51%), expanding cropland area (32.94%) and raising more livestock (16.27%) to adapt to the effects of climate change. Regression analysis revealed that households’ perceptions of climate change and five types of livelihood capital are important factors influencing their adoption of various livelihood strategies. In addition, the adaptation strategies used by households in the YHV are incremental adjustments to their existing production, while transformative adaptation strategies (e.g., irrigation facilities, improved crop varieties, agricultural insurance), which are larger in scale and could fundamentally reduce households’ vulnerability to climate change have been planned by the government. Due to the presence of government interventions, households in the YHV area are more proactive in adapting to climate change. Finally, the results of this paper are conducive to guiding the local government to enhance its intervention role to promote households’ climate change adaptation behavior.

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