Integrated Assessments of Meteorological Hazards across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China

Recent decades have witnessed accelerated climate changes across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) and elevated socioeconomic exposure to meteorological hazards. The QTP is called the “the third pole”, exerting remarkable impact on environmental changes in its surrounding regions. While few reports are available for addressing multi-hazard risks over the QTP, we develop an integrated indicator system involving multiple meteorological hazards, i.e., droughts, rainstorms, snowstorms and hailstorms, investigating the spatiotemporal patterns of major hazards over the QTP. The hazard zones of droughts and rainstorms are identified in the southern Gangdise Mountains, the South Tibet Valley, the eastern Nyenchen-Tanglha Mountains, the Hengduan Mountains and West Sichuan Basin. Snowstorm hazard zones distribute in the Himalayas, the Bayan Har Mountains and the central Nyenchen-Tanglha Mountains, while hailstorm hazard zones cluster in central part of the QTP. Since the 21st century, intensified rainstorms are detectable in the densely populated cities of Xining and Lhasa and their adjacent areas, while amplified droughts are observed in grain production areas of the South Tibet Valley and the Hengduan Mountains. Snowstorm hazards show large interannual variations and an increase in pastoral areas, although the overall trend is declining slightly. The frequency of hailstorms gradually decreases in human settlements due to thermal and landscape effects. Mapping meteorological hazards regionalization could help to understand climate risks in the QTP, and provide scientific reference for human adaptation to climate changes in highly sensitive areas.

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Revisiting the evolutionary events in Allium subgenus Cyathophora (Amaryllidaceae): Insights into the effect of the Hengduan Mountains Region (HMR) uplift and Quaternary climatic fluctuations to the environmental changes in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution ◽

10.1016/j.ympev.2015.10.002 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 94 ◽

pp. 802-813 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Min-Jie Li ◽

Jin-Bo Tan ◽

Deng-Feng Xie ◽

De-Qing Huang ◽

Yun-Dong Gao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Changes ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Hengduan Mountains ◽

Climatic Fluctuations ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

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Demographic history and genomic response to environmental changes in a rapid radiation of wild rats

Molecular Biology and Evolution ◽

10.1093/molbev/msaa334 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Deyan Ge ◽

Anderson Feijó ◽

Zhixin Wen ◽

Alexei V Abramov ◽

Liang Lu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Changes ◽

Demographic History ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Global Changes ◽

Rapid Radiation ◽

Protein Functions ◽

Wild Rats ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau ◽

Genomic Response

Abstract For organisms to survive and prosper in a harsh environment, particularly under rapid climate change, poses tremendous challenges. Recent studies have highlighted the continued loss of megafauna in terrestrial ecosystems and the subsequent surge of small mammals, such as rodents, bats, lagomorphs, and insectivores. However, the ecological partitioning of these animals will likely lead to large variation in their responses to environmental change. In the present study, we investigated the evolutionary history and genetic adaptations of white-bellied rats (Niviventer Marshall, 1976), which are widespread in the natural terrestrial ecosystems in Asia but also known as important zoonotic pathogen vectors and transmitters. The southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QHTP) was inferred as the origin center of this genus, with parallel diversification in temperate and tropical niches. Demographic history analyses from mitochondrial and nuclear sequences of Niviventer demonstrated population size increases and range expansion for species in Southeast Asia, and habitat generalists elsewhere. Unexpectedly, population increases were seen in N. eha, which inhabits the highest elevation among Niviventer species. Genome scans of nuclear exons revealed that among the congeneric species, N. eha has the largest number of positively selected genes. Protein functions of these genes are mainly related to olfaction, taste and tumor suppression. Extensive genetic modification presents a major strategy in response to global changes in these alpine species.

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Stronger Environmental Adaption of Abundant than Rare Microbes in Wetland Soils from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

10.21203/rs.3.rs-89424/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Wenjie Wan ◽

Geoffrey Michael Gadd ◽

Yuyi Yang ◽

Wenke Yuan ◽

Jidong Gu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Stochastic Process ◽

Community Assembly ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Model Analysis ◽

Ammonia Nitrogen ◽

Environmental Adaptation ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Wetland Soils ◽

Phylogenetic Distance ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

Abstract Background: Disentangling the biogeographic patterns of rare and abundant microbial sub-communities is essential in order to understand the generation and maintenance of microbial diversity with respect to the functions they provide. However, little is known about ecological assembly processes and environmental adaptation of rare and abundant microbial sub-communities across large spatial-scale wetlands. Using Illumina sequencing, we investigated the taxonomic and phylogenetic β-diversity of rare and abundant bacterial and fungal sub-communities in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau wetland soils. Additionally, we determined environmental breadths and phylogenetic signals of ecological preferences of rare and abundant microbial sub-communities, and investigated community assembly processes of microbial taxa. Results: We found that both taxonomic and phylogenetic similarities of rare and abundant microbial sub-communities attenuated with geographical distance. Based on threshold indicator taxa analysis and Blomberg’s K statistic, abundant microbial taxa exhibited broader environmental thresholds and stronger phylogenetic signals for ecological traits than rare microbial taxa. The strong correlations between community compositional dissimilarity and phylogenetic distance of rare microbial sub-communities also revealed that rare taxa may be more sensitive to environmental changes. In addition, the rare microbial sub-communities exhibited closer phylogenetic clustering compared with abundant microbial sub-communities. The null model analysis revealed that dispersal limitation belonging to stochastic process dominated ecological assembly of abundant bacterial sub-community, and rare and abundant fungal sub-communities; variable selection belonging to deterministic process governed community assembly of rare bacterial taxa. Neutral model analysis and variation partitioning analysis further confirmed that abundant microbial sub-communities were less environmentally constrained. Soil ammonia nitrogen was the crucial factor in mediating the balance between stochasticity and determinism of both rare and abundant microbial sub-communities, as reflected by distinct differences in stochastic process with higher ammonia nitrogen content.Conclusions: Abundant microbial sub-communities may have better environmental adaptation potential and are less dispersed by environmental changes compared with rare microbial sub-communities. Our findings extend knowledge of the adaptation of rare and abundant microbial taxa to ongoing environmental change and could facilitate prediction of biodiversity loss caused by global climate change and increasing human activity in wetlands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

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Eunotia (Bacillariophyta) biodiversity from high altitude, freshwater habitats in the Mugecuo Scenic Area, Sichuan Province, China

Phytotaxa ◽

10.11646/phytotaxa.394.2.2 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 394 (2) ◽

pp. 133 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

FEN LUO ◽

QINGMIN YOU ◽

PAN YU ◽

WANTING PANG ◽

QUANXI WANG

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Sichuan Basin ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Hengduan Mountains ◽

New Taxon ◽

Monsoon Climate ◽

Two New Species ◽

Freshwater Habitats ◽

The Sichuan Basin ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

Mugecuo Scenic Area is located in the northern Hengduan Mountains between the Sichuan Basin and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and has a subtropical humid monsoon climate. The area is at an altitude of 2600–3800 m above sea level (asl), with water originating mostly from melting mountain snow. In the region, a total of 20 Eunotia species have been identified, including two new species: E. mugecuo sp. nov., consisting of valves arched, clavate, ends broadly rounded, and terminal raphe fissures at the junction between valve face and mantle. The other newly-identified species is classified named as E. filiformis sp. nov., consisting of valves gently bent, ends not noticeably or only slightly inflated, broadly rounded, with external terminal raphe fissures curving in an angle of 180° back from apical nodules. Five newly recorded species have been identified in China, including E. odebrechtiana, E. michaelis, E. pomeranica, E. pseudogroenlandica and E. superpaludosa. Here, we discuss the new species and new taxon records through light and scanning microscopic documentation of valve morphology, along with key internal and external valve characteristics, and analyze the distribution of Eunotia in the Mugecuo Scenic Area.

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Contrasting responses to Pleistocene climate changes: a case study of two sister species Allium cyathophorum and A. spicata (Amaryllidaceae) distributed in the eastern and western Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Ecology and Evolution ◽

10.1002/ece3.1449 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (7) ◽

pp. 1513-1524 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Xinyu Wang ◽

Yuanshuo Li ◽

Qianlong Liang ◽

Lei Zhang ◽

Qian Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Changes ◽

Sister Species ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Pleistocene Climate ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

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Locomotion of Slope Geohazards Responding to Climate Change in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and Its Adjacent Regions

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su131910488 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (19) ◽

pp. 10488

Author(s):

Yiru Jia ◽

Jifu Liu ◽

Lanlan Guo ◽

Zhifei Deng ◽

Jiaoyang Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climatic Factors ◽

High Sensitivity ◽

Spatial Location ◽

Future Climate ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

The South ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

Slope geohazards, which cause significant social, economic and environmental losses, have been increasing worldwide over the last few decades. Climate change-induced higher temperatures and shifted precipitation patterns enhance the slope geohazard risks. This study traced the spatial transference of slope geohazards in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) and investigated the potential climatic factors. The results show that 93% of slope geohazards occurred in seasonally frozen regions, 2.6% of which were located in permafrost regions, with an average altitude of 3818 m. The slope geohazards are mainly concentrated at 1493–1988 m. Over time, the altitude of the slope geohazards was gradually increased, and the mean altitude tended to spread from 1984 m to 2562 m by 2009, while the slope gradient varied only slightly. The number of slope geohazards increased with time and was most obvious in spring, especially in the areas above an altitude of 3000 m. The increase in temperature and precipitation in spring may be an important reason for this phenomenon, because the results suggest that the rate of air warming and precipitation at geohazard sites increased gradually. Based on the observation of the spatial location, altitude and temperature growth rate of slope geohazards, it is noted that new geohazard clusters (NGCs) appear in the study area, and there is still a possibility of migration under the future climate conditions. Based on future climate forecast data, we estimate that the low-, moderate- and high-sensitivity areas of the QTP will be mainly south of 30° N in 2030, will extend to the south of 33° N in 2060 and will continue to expand to the south of 35° N in 2099; we also estimate that the proportion of high-sensitivity areas will increase from 10.93% in 2030 to 14.17% in 2060 and 17.48% in 2099.

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Responses of Alpine Grassland Plant Functional Groups To Environmental Changes In The Altunshan At North Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1007187/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ailin Zhang ◽

Shixin Wu ◽

Fanjiang Zeng ◽

Yong Jiang ◽

Ruzhen Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Groups ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Community Diversity ◽

Alpine Grassland ◽

Plant Functional Groups ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Individual Plant ◽

Hydrothermal Conditions ◽

Positive Correlation ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

Abstract Purpose: In grassland ecosystems, plant functional group (PFG) is an important bridge connecting individual plant to community system. Grassland ecosystem is the main ecosystem type on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, so the change of community structure of grassland vegetation.Methods: The Altun Mountains in the northern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were used as the study area to investigate the PFGs of a high-altitude (> 3700m) grassland in desert areas and their response to temperature and moisture.Results: The main functional groups were forbs and grasses, and the importance values (IV) accounted for more than 50%. Plant species diversity of the community was influenced by the functional groups of legumes IV, and the increase of legumes would promote the increase of plant community diversity. The C, N, P of plant communities were mainly influenced by forbs and grasses, and the relationship between forbs and C, N, P was opposite to that of grasses. There was a positive correlation between forbs and soil TP; a negative correlation between grasses and soil TP; a positive correlation between legumes with soil SOC and TN; and a positive correlation between sedge and soil SOC. However, under the influence of different hydrothermal conditions, forbs and grasses as dominant functional groups had stronger correlation with community and soil nutrients. Conclusions: This indicated that the PFGs with the largest proportion in the community had the greatest influence on the community. This provides a basis for the study of alpine grassland community development and ecosystem function under alpine grassland.

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