Abstract
Alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau are claimed to be sensitive and vulnerable to climate change and human disturbance. The mechanism, direction and magnitude of climatic and anthropogenic influences on net primary productivity (NPP) of various alpine pastures remain under debate. Here, we simulated the potential productivity (with only climate variables being considered as drivers; NPPP) and actual productivity (based on remote sensing dataset including both climate and anthropogenic drivers; NPPA) from 1993 to 2011. We denoted the difference between NPPP and NPPA as NPPpc to quantify how much forage can be potentially consumed by livestock. The actually consumed productivity (NPPac) by livestock were estimated based on meat production and daily forage consumption per standardized sheep unit. We hypothesized that the gap between NPPpc and NPPac (NPPgap) indicates the direction of vegetation dynamics, restoration or degradation. Our results show that growing season precipitation rather than temperature significantly relates with NPPgap, although warming was significant for the entire study region while precipitation only significantly increased in the northeastern places. On the Northern Tibetan Plateau, 69.05% of available alpine pastures showed a restoration trend with positive NPPgap, and for 58.74% of alpine pastures, stocking rate is suggested to increase in the future because of the positive mean NPPgap and its increasing trend. This study provides a potential framework for regionally regulating grazing management with aims to restore the degraded pastures and sustainable management of the healthy pastures on the Tibetan Plateau.
Highlights
IntroductionAlpine pasture degradation on the Tibetan Plateau is mainly attributed to overgrazing under the ongoing climate change in the last decades [4]
Grassland degradation is one of the most important issues closely related to biodiversity conservation, ecological functionality and sustainable development in a rapidly changing world [1,2,3].Alpine pasture degradation on the Tibetan Plateau is mainly attributed to overgrazing under the ongoing climate change in the last decades [4]
From 1993 to 2011, temperatures significantly increased across nearly the entire Northern Tibetan
Summary
Alpine pasture degradation on the Tibetan Plateau is mainly attributed to overgrazing under the ongoing climate change in the last decades [4]. Grassland degradation on this plateau has been. Climate change is believed to primarily impact functions and services of various ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau. Aboveground biomass and vegetation coverage are reduced by livestock grazing [12,13], so overgrazing by unfenced livestock is very likely to be the most important anthropogenic driver for pasture degradation on this plateau [4]. According to the intermediate disturbance hypothesis [14,15], a reasonable stocking rate might be better for maintaining stability in community structure and ecosystem functionality
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