Quantitative assessment of the relative roles of climate change and human activities in desertification processes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau based on net primary productivity

Li, Qing; Zhang, Chunlai; Shen, Yaping; Jia, Wenru; Li, Jiao

doi:10.1016/j.catena.2016.09.005

Cited by 183 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…, Li et al. ), as well as an eco‐hydrological modeling study from the eastern Plateau that predicted decreases in SM and leaf area index with rapid, warming‐induced permafrost degradation (Qin et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Permafrost and drought regulate vulnerability of Tibetan Plateau grasslands to warming

et al. 2018

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The Tibetan Plateau has the largest expanse of high‐elevation permafrost in the world, and it is experiencing climate warming that may jeopardize the functioning of its alpine ecosystems. Many studies have focused on the effects of climate warming on vegetation production and diversity on the Plateau, but their disparate results have hindered a comprehensive, regional understanding. From a synthesis of twelve warming experiments across the Plateau, we found that warming increased aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and vegetation height at sites with permafrost, but ANPP decreased with warming at non‐permafrost sites. Aboveground net primary production responded more negatively to warming under drier conditions, due to both annual drought conditions and warming‐induced soil moisture loss. Decreases in species diversity with warming were also larger at sites with permafrost. These results support the emerging understanding that water plays a central role in the functioning of cold environments and suggest that as ecosystems cross a threshold from permafrost to non‐permafrost systems, ANPP will decrease across a greater proportion of the Tibetan Plateau. This study also highlights the future convergence of challenges from permafrost degradation and grassland desertification, requiring new collaborations among these currently distinct research and stakeholder groups.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Permafrost and drought regulate vulnerability of Tibetan Plateau grasslands to warming

et al. 2018

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“…Grassland ecosystems are susceptible to desertification, and their ecological restoration is difficult and slow (Peters, Yao, Sala, & Anderson, ). The Tibetan Plateau is strongly affected by atmospheric circulation patterns and frigid temperatures caused by its high altitude, both of which further compound grassland restoration efforts (Li et al, ). Serious desertification problems have occurred since the 1980s in the Zoige Basin of the eastern Tibetan Plateau, where rainfall is relatively abundant, and the semihumid climate zone in this area has more than 800,000 ha of meadow (Hu, Dong, Lu, & Yan, ; Jiang, Hu, et al, ; Wang et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A few positive effects, that is, the re‐establishment of ecosystem structure and the restoration of ecosystem function, have been achieved by controlling the desertification processes in pasture areas of the Tibetan Plateau through a series of ecological projects implemented by the Chinese Government since 2000, for example, the “Returning Pasture into Rangeland” and “Ecological Compensation Awards” programmes (Wang, Zhao, Long, & Yang, ; Wang, Xue, Zhou, & Gou, ). Recently, ecological protection projects have become important factors in controlling desertification processes (Li et al, ), but a large area of desertified land still requires restoration to expedite its recovery of the ecosystem and foster ecosystem resilience against future disturbances.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Desertification results from climate change and human activities and has become an important factor preventing sustainable development in the arid, semiarid, and semihumid zones of the world, which currently account for 41% of the global land area (D'Odorico, Bhattachan, Davis, Ravi, & Runyan, 2013;Li, Zhang, Shen, Jia, & Li, 2016;Hu, Yu, et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2017). Grassland ecosystems are susceptible to desertification, and their ecological restoration is difficult and slow (Peters, Yao, Sala, & Anderson, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Variation in physicochemical and biochemical soil properties among different plant species treatments early in the restoration of a desertified alpine meadow

Liu

Zeng

et al. 2019

Land Degrad Dev

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Soil nutrients, enzyme activities, and microbial biomass have important significance for biogeochemical cycles and are affected by vegetation restoration in degradation ecosystems. To explore the effects of replanting different plant species on soil restoration in a desertified alpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan Plateau and to optimize the restoration process with locally appropriate plant species, the soil physicochemical and biochemical properties were measured beneath the plant species Rhodiola kirilowii, Salix cupularis, and Kengyilia rigidula over two periods of vegetative growth (2 years and 5 years). The results showed that all the soil properties significantly improved over the recovery periods (p < .001) and the plant species significantly affected the patterns of soil bulk density, available resources, and biochemical properties (p < .05). However, R. kirilowii improved soil properties most significantly among the three plant species as the recovery time elapsed, and these improvements were strongly related to the greatest fresh vegetation biomass and coverage. Furthermore, R. kirilowii enhanced microbial biomass phosphorus even more, which is an important available phosphorus stock in the soil, and more effectively promoted the development of soil fungi than the two other species. Therefore, we suggest that R. kirilowii is the preferred species of the three to expedite the recovery of desertified alpine soil, and that the appropriate addition of P fertilizer and propelling the development of specific fungi groups in the soil are key to soil restoration in the desertified alpine meadow.

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“…Additionally, these problems have featured hugely in scientific publications and warnings (Tolba and Saab 2009). Such problems that have been hugely addressed in the literature include, as an examples, air pollution (Ahmadi et al 2015;Li et al 2016a), climatic changes (Carleton and Hsiang 2016; Deutsch et al 2015), industrial effluents (Padmanaban et al 2016), desertification (Juřička et al 2016;Li et al 2016b), vulnerability of groundwater to external pollutants (Damak et al 2016;Iqbal et al 2014), land degradation (Akhtar-Schuster et al 2016;Kosmas et al 2016) and aquatic environment pollution with organic and inorganic pollutants (Shakeri et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A bibliometric-based evaluation on environmental research in the Arab world

Zyoud

Fuchs-Hanusch

Zyoud

et al. 2016

Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Quantitative assessment of the relative roles of climate change and human activities in desertification processes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau based on net primary productivity

Cited by 183 publications

References 20 publications

Permafrost and drought regulate vulnerability of Tibetan Plateau grasslands to warming

Permafrost and drought regulate vulnerability of Tibetan Plateau grasslands to warming

Variation in physicochemical and biochemical soil properties among different plant species treatments early in the restoration of a desertified alpine meadow

A bibliometric-based evaluation on environmental research in the Arab world

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