Abstract
Qinghai province is an important part of the Tibetan Plateau, and is characterized by extremely fragile ecosystems. In the last few decades, grasslands in this province have been influenced profoundly by climate change, as well as human activities. Here, we use the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) model to assess the dynamics of temperate steppe, alpine steppe, temperate meadow, alpine meadow, sparse grassland and herbaceous wetland via actual net primary productivity (NPPa). Our findings showed that: (1) From 2001 to 2016, the average NPPa in Qinghai province showed a fluctuation presented a generally increasing trend. The mean value of NPPa was 114.27 g C m−2 year−1, and the increase rate was 0.47 g C cm−2 year−1. (2) There were NPPa increase rate discrepancies among the six typical grassland biomes. Herbaceous wetland had the highest change rate, closely followed by alpine steppe, temperate steppe, alpine meadow, temperate meadow and sparse grassland. (3) The largest area of restoration mainly impacted by climate change reached 47.08% of the total grassland area, with human activities accounting for 21.74%. By contrast, the deteriorated area induced by human activities accounted for 9.78% of the total grassland. (4) Temperature may have been a greater factor than precipitation in driving grassland change during the study period. Decreasing grazing intensity and implementing effective protection measures were favorable to grassland restoration.
Highlights
Grasslands as an important part of the terrestrial ecosystems account for 30% of the global land area [1]
This study analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of NPPa across different grassland types, suchTahsistemstupdeyrataensatleypzpede, tahlpeinspeasttieoptepme,ptoermalpedryanteammiecasdoofwN, aPlPpainaecrmosesaddoifwfe,rsepnatrsgeragsrsalsasnldantdypaensd, such as temperate steppe, alpine steppe, temperate meadow, alpine meadow, sparse grassland and herbaceous wetland
The results provided a new understanding of grassland dynamics in Qinghai province in recent decades
Summary
Grasslands as an important part of the terrestrial ecosystems account for 30% of the global land area [1]. It was reported that the vegetation recovery was obvious in more than one decade in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, mostly due to the implementation of a series of ecological restoration project, climate change [7,8]. It is of great importance to monitor the variations of grassland NPP, and identify the differences among six grassland types, analyze the driving forces in Qinghai province [11]. The objectives were to (1) accurately simulate the spatiotemporal evaluation of grassland NPP in Qinghai province from 2000 to 2016; (2) distinguish the effects of various driving factors on grassland dynamics; (3) identify the differences among temperate steppe, alpine steppe, temperate meadow, alpine meadow, sparse grassland and herbaceous wetland; (4) provide a theoretical basis for grassland recovery and the effects of ecosystem protection projects
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