Opinionated Views on Grassland Restoration Programs on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Hua, Ting; Zhao, Wenwu; Pereira, Paulo

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.861200

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Additionally, the ecological projects in TP aimed at improving ecological conditions, such as those implemented over forests and grassland (Hua, Zhao, & Pereira, 2022 ), could also enhance the precipitation contribution through both direct (increased ET) and indirect mechanisms (land‐atmosphere interaction). There has been ample evidence suggesting that ecological projects improved vegetation and intensified ET (Chen et al, 2022 ; Yu et al, 2020 ; Zheng et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of Tibetan Plateau ecosystems to local and remote precipitation through moisture recycling

Yang

et al. 2022

Global Change Biology

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The ecosystems of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) provide multiple important ecosystem services that benefit both local populations and those beyond, such as through climate regulation services on precipitation for East Asia and China. However, the precipitation regulation service of the TP ecosystems for supplying moisture and maintaining precipitation is yet to be evaluated. In this study, we used the moisture recycling framework and a moisture tracking model to quantify the precipitation regulation services of TP ecosystems for their contribution to precipitation. We found TP ecosystems contributed substantially to local and downwind precipitation, with a contribution of 221 mm/year for the TP and neighboring areas through evapotranspiration (ET) (104 mm/year through transpiration), declined to <10 mm/year for eastern China and other surrounding countries. Among ecosystem types, grassland contributed most to precipitation, followed by barren and snow lands, forests, and shrublands. In terms of seasonality, precipitation contribution from TP ecosystems was greater in summer months than in non‐summer months for western China, while the opposite was true for eastern China—although the magnitude was much smaller. Over the past two decades, the significant ET increases in TP translated to a widespread increase in precipitation contribution for TP and downwind beneficiary regions from 2000 to 2020. Our study provides a quantitative way to understand the precipitation regulation services of TP ecosystems through moisture recycling, substantiating their key role to maintain precipitation and the water cycle for downwind regions—effectively acting as an ecological safeguard that could be perceived by the public.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of Tibetan Plateau ecosystems to local and remote precipitation through moisture recycling

Yang

et al. 2022

Global Change Biology

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“…This method does not incorporate human activity into consideration. Since 2000, various ecological protection policies have been renewed and implemented on the Tibetan Plateau, which have driven vegetation restoration ( Hua et al., 2022b ). Although climate change is the dominant factor in controlling the inter-annual dynamic of grassland productivity, ecological engineering projects may have more or less impact on the changes in vegetation productivity ( Li et al., 2021a ; Wang et al., 2022 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing connections among temporal invariability, resistance and resilience of alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau

Yang¹,

Sun²,

Niu³

et al. 2022

Front. Plant Sci.

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Ecological stability contains multiple components, such as temporal invariability, resistance and resilience. Understanding the response of stability components to perturbations is beneficial for optimizing the management of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Although previous studies have investigated the effects of multiple perturbations on each stability component, few studies simultaneously measure the multiple stability components and their relationships. Alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau are exposed to co-occurring perturbations, including climate change and human activities. Here, we quantified three stability components (temporal invariability, resistance, and resilience) of alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau during periods of high (2000-2008) and low (2009-2017) human activity intensity, respectively. We focused on the effects of climate variables (temperature, precipitation, radiation) and human activities (grazing intensity) on covariation among stability components. The results show that (1) for periods of high and low human activity, temporal invariability was positively correlated with resistance and resilience, while resistance was independent of resilience; (2) the dimensionality of alpine grasslands decreased by almost 10%, from 0.61 in the first period to 0.55 in the second period, suggesting the increasing connections among temporal invariability, resistance and resilience of alpine grasslands; and (3) temperature but not grazing intensity dominated the changes in the dimensionality of stability. These findings improve our understanding of multi-dimensional stability and highlight the importance of climate variability on alpine grassland stability on the Tibetan Plateau.

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“…EE can directly affect the distribution of SCSs by changing the land use types [ 19 , 20 ]. In addition, researchers have investigated other influencing forms of EE, which consist of types such as the afforestation area, vegetation restoration, and relative policies [ 13 , 21 , 22 ]. For instance, the vital soil conservation (SC) function areas were generally consistent with high vegetation coverage areas [ 23 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial-Temporal Variations in of Soil Conservation Service and Its Influencing Factors under the Background of Ecological Engineering in the Taihang Mountain Area, China

Wang

Liu

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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Soil conservation (SC) plays an important role in maintaining regional land productivity and sustainable development. Ecological engineering (EE) is being implemented in different countries to effectively alleviate the damage to the ecological environment and effectively protect soil and food security. It is important to determine whether or not the SC capacity becomes stronger after the implementation of EE and whether or not EE has a notable impact on SC in different altitude zones. The exploration of the influencing mechanism and identification of the dominate influencing factors in different geographical regions needs to be improved. In this study, the soil conservation services (SCSs) from 1980 to 2020 in the Taihang Mountain area was assessed using the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs (InVEST) model, and the spatial and temporal distributions and influencing factors were explored. The results showed the following: (1) the average SCSs exhibited an increasing trend from 1980 to 2020 on the whole, and the rate of increase reached 50.53% during the 41-year period. The rate of increase of the SCSs varied in the different EE implementation regions, and it was significantly higher than that of the entire study area. (2) The spatial distribution of the SCSs was highly heterogeneous, and the high SCS value areas were coincident with the high-altitude areas where forest and grassland occupied a large proportion. The low value areas were mainly located in the hilly zone or some of the basin regions where the proportion of construction land was relatively high. (3) The distribution pattern of the SCSs was the result of multiple factors. The EE intensity had the strongest explanatory power for the SCSs in the hilly zone, explaining 34.63%. The slope was the most critical factor affecting the SCSs in the mid-mountain and sub-alpine zones. The slope and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) had the greatest interactions with the other factors in the three altitude zones, especially in the high-altitude regions. The quantitative analysis of the SCSs and the influences of EE and natural factors on the SCSs revealed the heterogeneity in the mountainous areas. These results also provide a scientific basis for the reasonable implementation of EE and sustainable management of SCSs in the Taihang Mountain area.

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Opinionated Views on Grassland Restoration Programs on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Cited by 8 publications

References 45 publications

Contribution of Tibetan Plateau ecosystems to local and remote precipitation through moisture recycling

Contribution of Tibetan Plateau ecosystems to local and remote precipitation through moisture recycling

Increasing connections among temporal invariability, resistance and resilience of alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau

Spatial-Temporal Variations in of Soil Conservation Service and Its Influencing Factors under the Background of Ecological Engineering in the Taihang Mountain Area, China

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