Divergences of Two Coupled Human and Natural Systems on the Mongolian Plateau

Quantifying the surface energy fluxes of grazed and ungrazed steppes is essential to understand the roles of grasslands in local and global climate and in land use change. We used paired eddy-covariance towers to investigate the effects of grazing on energy balance (EB) components: net radiation (R ), latent heat (LE), sensible heat (H), and soil heat (G) fluxes on adjacent grazed and ungrazed areas in a desert steppe of the Mongolian Plateau for a two-year period (2010-2012). Near 95% of R was partitioned as LE and H, whereas the contributions of G and other components of the EB were 5% at an annual scale. H dominated the energy partitioning and shared ~50% of R . When comparing the grazed and the ungrazed desert steppe, there was remarkably lower R and a lower H, but higher G at the grazed site than at the ungrazed site. Both reduced available energy (R - G) and H indicated a "cooling effect" feedback onto the local climate through grazing. Grazing reduced the dry year LE but enhanced the wet year LE. Energy partitioning of LE/R was positively correlated with the canopy conductivity, leaf area index, and soil moisture. H/R was positively correlated with the vapor pressure deficit but negatively correlated with the soil moisture. Boosted regression tree results showed that LE/R was dominated by soil moisture in both years and at both sites, while grazing shifted the H/R domination from temperature to soil moisture in the wet year. Grazing not only caused an LE shift between the dry and the wet year, but also triggered a decrease in the H/R because of changes in vegetation and soil properties, indicating that the ungrazed area had a greater resistance while the grazed area had a greater sensitivity of EB components to the changing climate.

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“…, IPCC , Chen et al. ), with an increases of 0.35°C per 10 years in mean air temperature since 1955 (Lu et al. , John et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing effects on surface energy fluxes in a desert steppe on the Mongolian Plateau

Shao

Chen

et al. 2017

Ecological Applications

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“…Importantly, river flow datasets should not be considered as stationary time series, because both climate change and human activities are driving systematic changes in runoff (Milly et al, 2005). Currently, interest is increasingly focused on analyzing how human activities may shape runoff (Entwisle and Stern, 2005;Chen et al, 2015;Milano et al, 2015); yet in most studies, human activities are simplified and represented as land-use change. The complexity and nonlinearity of runoff change is given little consideration due to a lack of knowledge on the interactive roles of climate change and human activities .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the interactions of human-generated effects with climatic factors are not included in current analyses Villa et al, 2014;Zhao et al, 2014). Empirical evidence strongly indicates that climatic and anthropogenic factors interact with one another, often in a nonlinear fashion, varying in time and creating new patterns of ecosystem behavior (Agrawal and Lemos, 2007;Liu et al, 2007;Chen et al, 2015). Thus, an analysis of the complex nature of water resource provision in intensively managed ecosystems (like the Loess Plateau) is urgently needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of climatic and anthropogenic stresses on long-term runoff reduction from the Loess Plateau, China

Feng

Cheng

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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Human intervention has strongly altered patterns of river runoff. Yet, few studies have addressed the complexity and nonlinearity of the anthropogenic stresses on runoff or their interaction with climate. We study the Loess Plateau in China, whose river runoff contributes 65% of the discharge to the middle reach of the Yellow River; this landscape has been shaped by human activity and is intensively managed. Our purpose is to characterize the interactive roles of climate and human activities in defining river runoff from the Loess Plateau. Applying a transient analysis to discover the time-varying runoff trend and impact factors, we found that the average runoff in the Loess Plateau decreased continuously during the period 1961-2009 (average rate of − 0.9 mm year −1 , P b 0.001). This long-term decrease in runoff mainly occurred in three stages, with transitions in 1970, 1981 and 1996. Reduced precipitation was the main reason for the decrease in runoff over the entire study period. However, human intervention played a dominant role in creating the transition points. Water yield (i.e., the ratio of runoff to precipitation) decreased following each anthropogenic transition, causing a 56% reduction in available freshwater resources during the period 1961-2009. These findings highlight the need for studies that address the dynamic and nonlinear processes controlling the availability of freshwater resources in the light of anthropogenic influences applied under a changing climate. Such studies are essential if we are to meet the human water demand in the Loess Plateau region.

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“…1). Although the two regions share a similar cultural and ecological history, they have experienced very different population growth rates, levels of market access, and land-tenure reforms (Chen et al 2015a). At the same time, they are also facing similar sustainability challenges, including grassland degradation and desertification, drought and water scarcity, and increased frequency of dzud, a winter weather disaster that results in catastrophic loss of livestock (Chen et al 2015a).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Although the two regions share a similar cultural and ecological history, they have experienced very different population growth rates, levels of market access, and land-tenure reforms (Chen et al 2015a). At the same time, they are also facing similar sustainability challenges, including grassland degradation and desertification, drought and water scarcity, and increased frequency of dzud, a winter weather disaster that results in catastrophic loss of livestock (Chen et al 2015a). The broader motivation for this work came from the need to articulate plateau-wide and regionspecific knowledge about potential future issues and drivers of change, in order to build consensus on important research directions and to inform ongoing policy discussions within China and Mongolia.…”

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confidence: 99%

Combining participatory scenario planning and systems modeling to identify drivers of future sustainability on the Mongolian Plateau

Allington¹,

Fernández‐Giménez²,

Chen³

et al. 2018

E&S

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. 2018. Combining participatory scenario planning and systems modeling to identify drivers of future sustainability on the Mongolian Plateau. Ecology and Society 23 (2) ABSTRACT. The study of social-ecological systems (SES) is an inherently interdisciplinary endeavor that necessitates collaboration among multiple researchers and stakeholders. These collaborations often result in novel insights into the dynamics and feedbacks that occur within these systems. Achieving these insights requires methods and tools that integrate diverse knowledge from multiple disciplines and sectors of society to inform actionable research on complex systems. Past research has demonstrated the contributions that stakeholders can make to defining scenarios that are subsequently applied to quantitative modeling. Here, we focus on the feedback from quantitative modeling to refinement and interpretation of scenarios, and demonstrate how quantitative modeling can reveal aspects of system dynamics that were not considered during scenario development. We present a case study in which we use qualitative scenario planning as a tool to engender systems thinking by a diverse set of stakeholders in a complex transboundary SES: the Mongolian Plateau. This exercise demonstrated the value of participatory scenario planning as a tool for facilitating interdisciplinary and crosssectoral dialog and knowledge generation. It also ensured the integration of place-based knowledge into scenario development for subsequent quantitative modeling. In addition to incorporating stakeholder knowledge in simulation of complex human-environment dynamics, the quantitative modeling revealed how the dynamics of rural out-migration contribute to the decoupling of rural herder populations and livestock numbers. The emergent knowledge gained from this process underscores the utility of pairing the qualitative scenarios with quantitative simulations to reveal unanticipated system behavior and key drivers not identified or overlooked by stakeholders.

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Divergences of Two Coupled Human and Natural Systems on the Mongolian Plateau

Cited by 97 publications

References 37 publications

Grazing effects on surface energy fluxes in a desert steppe on the Mongolian Plateau

Grazing effects on surface energy fluxes in a desert steppe on the Mongolian Plateau

The role of climatic and anthropogenic stresses on long-term runoff reduction from the Loess Plateau, China

Combining participatory scenario planning and systems modeling to identify drivers of future sustainability on the Mongolian Plateau

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