Effect of climate and thaw depth on alpine vegetation variations at different permafrost degrading stages in the Tibetan Plateau, China

Yu, Feng; Liang, Sihai; Kuang, Xingxing; Wang, Guangjun; Wang, Xusheng; Wu, Pan; Wan, Li; Wu, Qingbai

doi:10.1080/15230430.2019.1605798

Cited by 20 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 76 publications

(106 reference statements)

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“…Groundwater sustains rivers in winter and buffers droughts to maintain fragile ecosystems, especially in arid or semi‐arid regions (de Graaf et al., 2019; Famiglietti, 2014; Fan et al., 2013; Gleeson et al., 2016; Rodell et al., 2009; Taylor et al., 2013; Yao et al., 2021). Over the past decades, TP has experienced dramatic glacier retreat, permafrost degradation, and lake expansions caused by global warming (Brun et al., 2017; Cheng & Wu, 2007; Feng et al., 2019; Ji et al., 2020; Kuang & Jiao, 2016; Yao et al., 2012, 2022; Yi et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2020). The accelerated transformation from solid water into liquid water may alter groundwater recharge, storage, and discharge to varying degrees, resulting in substantial changes in the groundwater system (Cheng & Jin, 2013; Gao et al., 2018; Huss & Hock, 2018; Lin et al., 2020; Yin et al., 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solid Water Melt Dominates the Increase of Total Groundwater Storage in the Tibetan Plateau

Zou

Kuang

Jiao

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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Understanding how groundwater storage (GWS) responds to climate change is essential for water resources management and future water availability in the Tibetan Plateau (TP). However, the dominant factor controlling long‐term GWS changes remains unclear and its responses to climate change are not well understood. Here we combined multi‐source datasets including in‐situ measurements, satellite observations, global models, and reanalysis products to reveal that GWS increased at 5.59 ± 1.44 Gt/yr during 2003–2016 while showing spatial heterogeneities with increasing trends in northern TP and glacial regions and declining trends in central and southern TP. The accelerated transformation from solid water (glaciers, snow, and permafrost; −17.72 ± 1.53 Gt/yr) into liquid water provide more recharge to groundwater, dominating the total GWS increase. This study contributes to a better understanding of the hydrological cycle under climate change and provides key information for projecting water availability under different future scenarios in the TP.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solid Water Melt Dominates the Increase of Total Groundwater Storage in the Tibetan Plateau

Zou

Kuang

Jiao

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…Worldwide, several studies examined the influence of climate variability on vegetation variability represented by NDVI, EVI and above-ground biomass (Le Houerou et al 1988;Lotsch et al 2003;Vicente-Serrano et al 2013;Thornton et al 2014;Seddon et al 2016;Sloat et al 2018;Bao et al 2019;Chen et al 2019;Feng et al 2019a;Stanimirova et al 2019), and revealed the dominance of precipitation variability in the arid and semi-arid ecosystems. For example, using the CASA model, Bao et al (2019) showed that annual NPP was about 265 g C/m 2 on the Mongolian Plateau and that summer drought played a significant role in determining annual NPP variability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, similar studies on the TP are very limited. Only Feng et al (2019a) found that precipitation could account for the NDVI variability in the permafrost zone of the TP in some periods during 1982-2012.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decadal change and inter-annual variability of net primary productivity on the Tibetan Plateau

et al. 2021

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Net primary productivity (NPP) is an important indicator of plant dynamics and the net carbon exchange between the terrestrial ecosystem and atmosphere. Both the long-term shifts in climate mean (climate change) and short-term variations around the climate mean (climate variability) have impacts on NPP but studies examining both aspects of climate variations are rare especially in the data-scarce regions such as the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Here, we used a dynamic vegetation model to investigate the impacts of the changes and variabilities in temperature, precipitation, cloud cover and CO2 on NPP on the TP. The simulated NPP was evaluated using field and Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer NPP and was found to be reasonable. At monthly time scale, NPP significantly correlated concurrently and at 1-month lag with temperature, precipitation and cloud cover (coefficient of determination, R2, in 0.52–0.77). Annual NPP variability was high (low) where mean annual NPP was low (high). The effects of annual precipitation, cloud cover and temperature variability on annual NPP variability were spatially heterogeneous, and temperature variability appeared to be the dominant factor (R2 of 0.74). Whereas, NPP changes were very similar to CO2 increases across the TP (spatial correlation of 0.60), indicating that long-term changes in NPP were dominated by CO2 increases. For both variability and long-term changes in NPP, temperature was the major factor of influence (highest spatial correlation of 0.67). These findings could assist in making informed mitigation policies on the impacts of climate change and variability on ecosystem and local nomadic communities.

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“…Our findings of the generic responses of frozen soil depth and vegetation production to variations of air temperature across the Tibetan Plateau are in accordance with the opinion that the warming is causing changes in cryosphere and biosphere, such as deepening of the permafrost active layer (Cheng & Wu, 2007; Lu et al, 2017), shrinking permafrost area (Guo et al, 2012), shortening freeze period of the seasonally frozen soils (Cuo et al, 2015; Luo et al, 2020; Zhao et al, 2004), and advance of greenness and increasing plant productivity (Feng et al, 2019; Shen et al, 2015; Zhang et al, 2014). The Tibetan Plateau is experiencing climate warming at a high increasing rate, which is accelerating ground warming and promoting the frozen soil thawing (Guo et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct climate driven spatial patterns of frozen soil and vegetation that reflect plant sensitivities across the Tibetan Plateau

Zhou

Song

et al. 2021

Land Degrad Dev

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Earth's cryosphere and biosphere are extremely sensitive to climate changes, and transitions in states could alter the carbon emission rate to the atmosphere. However, little is known about the climate sensitivities of frozen soil and vegetation production. Moreover, how does climate heterogeneity control the spatial patterns of such sensitivities, and influence regional vulnerability of both frozen soil and vegetation production? Such questions are critical to be answered. We compiled long-timeseries dataset including frozen soil depth (FD), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and temperature and precipitation across Tibetan Plateau to quantify their sensitivities. Results reveal large spatial heterogeneity in FD and NDVI sensitivities. Precipitation alleviated FD sensitivities to warming in the cold northeast zone but accelerated FD sensitivities to precipitation in the warm south and southeast.Meanwhile, the positive warming effect on the NDVI was largely offset by slow increase of precipitation. Areas with high FD decreasing rate were found in northeast, inland, and south and southeast zones. Predominate area across the nine ecoregions are characterized as medium FD decreasing rate, and are synchronized with positive NDVI response in inland and west Himalayas, but negative in northeast and south and southeast. Precipitation restriction on NDVI would be pronounced in moist south and southeast. Our study provides new information that makes a much-needed contribution to advancing our understandings of the effects of global climate change on cryosphere and biosphere, which has important implications for global climate and our ability to predict, and therefore prepare for, future global climatic changes. Our attempt confirms that the method we used could be used to identify climate sensitivity of permafrost based on substantial observation data on active layer dynamics in future.

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Effect of climate and thaw depth on alpine vegetation variations at different permafrost degrading stages in the Tibetan Plateau, China

Cited by 20 publications

References 76 publications

Solid Water Melt Dominates the Increase of Total Groundwater Storage in the Tibetan Plateau

Solid Water Melt Dominates the Increase of Total Groundwater Storage in the Tibetan Plateau

Decadal change and inter-annual variability of net primary productivity on the Tibetan Plateau

Distinct climate driven spatial patterns of frozen soil and vegetation that reflect plant sensitivities across the Tibetan Plateau

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