Rangeland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau: A review of the evidence of its magnitude and causes

Harris, Richard B.

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2009.06.014

Cited by 919 publications

(603 citation statements)

References 72 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

585

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The main driving forces of these degenerations are climate change, strong human activity (overgrazing) and devastation due to rodents (Ma et al, 1999;Liu et al, 2008;Yan et al, 2011). There has been increasing attention to ecosystem degeneration of QinghaieTibetan Plateau (Yang et al, 2010;Yi et al, 2011), and research mainly focused on the driving forces of degeneration (Harris, 2010) and the impacts of degeneration on soil ecosystems (Tan et al, 2006;Hu et al, 2009) and pasture production (Shi et al, 2006). Although QinghaieTibetan Plateau is densely covered by streams, no research about the impact of degeneration on stream ecosystems has been done.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal patterns of periphyton biomass in Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau streams: An indicator of pasture degradation?

Ren

Jiang

Cai

2013

Quaternary International

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal patterns of periphyton biomass in Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau streams: An indicator of pasture degradation?

Ren

Jiang

Cai

2013

Quaternary International

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Anthropogenic factors such as overgrazing and irrational land use have been reported as the main drivers of alpine grassland degradation on the Tibetan Plateau (Harris 2010;Yu et al 2012;Li et al 2013). Climate warming and lagomorphs damage are also reported as causes of grassland degradation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Natural alpine grassland dominates this plateau and covers approximately 1.525×10 6 km 2 (Zhang et alidentified as the two primary anthropogenic forces that have driven grassland degradation since the 1980s in this region (Harris 2010;Yu et al 2012;Li et al 2013). The degradation of ecological functions of alpine grasslands is characterized by land desertification (Yang et al 2004;Li et al 2013), productivity decline (Wen et al 2013), and the invasion of locoweed (Liu et al 2002;Lu et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The degradation of ecological functions of alpine grasslands is characterized by land desertification (Yang et al 2004;Li et al 2013), productivity decline (Wen et al 2013), and the invasion of locoweed (Liu et al 2002;Lu et al 2012). In the context of ongoing climatic warming, continuing ecological degradation would adversely affect the local socioeconomic-environmental system (Long et al 2008) and would also endanger human welfare in East China and Southeast Asia (Harris 2010;Yang et al 2010;Cuo et al 2013), as the Tibetan alpine grasslands play as the most important ecological security for headwater regions of the main international rivers in Asia, such as the Yellow, the Yangtze, and the Lantsang-Mekong (Liu et al 2002;Zhong et al 2006Zhong et al , 2010Sun et al 2012). Therefore, it is critical to prevent any additional degradation of healthy grasslands and to promote the ecological recovery of the degraded grasslands .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Spatial and climatic patterns of the relative abundance of poisonous vs. non-poisonous plants across the Northern Tibetan Plateau

Yang

Zhang

et al. 2015

Environ Monit Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is the most serious challenge to promote degraded grassland recovery currently facing the developing Tibetan Autonomous Region. We conducted field surveys of 75 grazing sites between 2009 and 2012 across the Northern Tibetan Plateau and described the spatial and climatic patterns of the occurrence of poisonous plants. Our results showed lower ratios of species richness (SprRatio), coverage (CovRatio), and biomass (BioRatio) of non-poisonous vs. poisonous plants in the semi-arid alpine steppe zone, where the growing season precipitation (GSP) is between 250 and 350 mm; however, this result is in contrast to the relatively wetter meadow (GSP >350 mm) and much drier desert-steppe (GSP <250 mm) communities. Results from generalized additive models (GAMs) further confirmed that precipitation is primarily responsible for the initially decreasing and then increasing tendency of compositional ratios of non-poisonous to poisonous species. The wide confidence bands at GSP <250 mm indicated that precipitation is not an effective indicator for predicting compositional changes in desert-steppe communities. When mean annual livestock grazing pressure was incorporated into the optimal GAMs, the model performance improved: the Akaike information criterion (AIC) decreased by 1.20 for SprRatio and 3.09 for BioRatio, and the deviance explained (R 2 ) increased by 6.0 % for SprRatio and 3.6 % for BioRatio. Therefore, more detailed information on grazing disturbance (timing, frequency, and density) should be collected to disentangle the relative contribution of climate change and grazing activities to changes in community assembly and ecological functions of alpine grasslands on the Northern Tibetan Plateau.

show abstract

“…), and jerboas (Allactaga spp.) have exerted significant negative impacts on trophic dynamics and ecosystem services (Harris 2010). Similarly, according to a survey conducted by Jin et al (2009), the degrading or degraded permafrost has improved the physical conditions for rodent activities such as burrowing.…”

Section: One Of the Most Vulnerable Ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing the Three-Rivers Headwater Region, China: From Ecological Engineering to Social Engineering

Fang

2013

AMBIO

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The three-rivers headwater region (THRHR) of Qinghai province, China plays a key role as source of fresh water and ecosystem services for central and eastern China. Global warming and human activities in the THRHR have threatened the ecosystem since the 1980s. Therefore, the Chinese government has included managing of the THRHR in the national strategy since 2003. The State Integrated Test and Demonstration Region of the THRHR highlights the connection with social engineering (focus on improving people's livelihood and wellbeing) in managing nature reserves. Based on this program, this perspective attempts a holistic analysis of the strategic role of the THRHR, requirements for change, indices of change, and approaches to change. Long-term success of managing nature reserves requires effective combination of ecological conservation, economic development, and social progress. Thus, the philosophy of social engineering should be employed as a strategy to manage the THRHR.

show abstract

Rangeland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau: A review of the evidence of its magnitude and causes

Cited by 919 publications

References 72 publications

Longitudinal patterns of periphyton biomass in Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau streams: An indicator of pasture degradation?

Longitudinal patterns of periphyton biomass in Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau streams: An indicator of pasture degradation?

Spatial and climatic patterns of the relative abundance of poisonous vs. non-poisonous plants across the Northern Tibetan Plateau

Managing the Three-Rivers Headwater Region, China: From Ecological Engineering to Social Engineering

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About