Abstract
Alpine grasslands are a common feature on the extensive (2.6 million km2) Qinghai–Tibet plateau in western and southwestern China. These grasslands are characterized by their ability to thrive at high altitudes and in areas with short growing seasons and low humidity. Alpine steppe and alpine meadow are the principal plant Formations supporting a rich species mix of grass and forb species, many of them endemic. Alpine grasslands are the mainstay of pastoralism where yaks and hardy Tibetan sheep and Bactrian camels are the favored livestock in the cold arid region. It is not only their importance to local semi nomadic herders, but their role as headwaters of nine major rivers that provide water to more than one billion people in China and in neighboring countries in south and south-east Asia and beyond. Grasslands in this region were heavily utilized in recent decades and are facing accelerated land degradation. Government and herder responses, although quite different, are being implemented as climate change and the transition to the market economy proceeds apace. Problems and prospects for alpine grasslands and the management regimes being imposed (including sedentarization, resettlement and global warming are briefly discussed.
Highlights
This study is a brief overview and synthesis of key points relating to the dynamics of alpine grasslands on the high-altitude and generally arid Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP)
It presents a synthesis of what is known about the key issues relating to alpine grasslands and the people, both locally and in distant countries, who depend on the ecosystem goods and services the grasslands provide
In China itself, hundreds of millions rely on the rivers that arise on the QTP to provide water for irrigation, industrial uses, navigation and domestic water supply
Summary
This study is a brief overview and synthesis of key points relating to the dynamics of alpine grasslands on the high-altitude and generally arid Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). It presents a synthesis of what is known about the key issues relating to alpine grasslands and the people, both locally and in distant countries, who depend on the ecosystem goods and services the grasslands provide. South-east Asia are utterly dependent on flows along the Mekong, Brahmaputra and the other major rivers that arise on the QTP. The management regimes under which they are used has changed a lot in the past 80 years Plateau [4] playing an important role as an eco-safety barrier and serving as the basis of highland animal husbandry (Figures 3a and 4)
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