Guoluo Prefecture Research Articles

Analysis of Carbon Emission Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Herder Households: A County-Scale Investigation of the Sanjiangyuan Region on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

With further urbanization, household consumption firmly plays a key role in China’s national carbon emissions. However, current research concerning carbon issues has mainly focused on urban household consumption, and few studies have paid attention to herder households, leading to a research gap in the field of low-carbon shifting related to nomadic economies. In this study, we interviewed more than one-thousand herder households in the Sanjiangyuan region of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau in China. The household carbon emissions and their influencing factors were investigated across the herder households of 15 counties. Our findings revealed the following: (1) There exist differences in the amounts of household carbon emissions and their compositions in the Sanjiangyuan region. From the perspective of spatial distribution, the emission hotspots are mainly concentrated in the eastern part of the Sanjiangyuan region. (2) At the prefecture level, average personal emissions were larger in the Hainan Prefecture (3.26 t ce/year), while they were approximately 1.36 times that of the Huangnan Prefecture (2.4 t ce/year), though with smaller personal emissions. The indirect carbon emissions of the four prefectures all occupied larger percentages of household carbon emissions that were mainly contributed by food consumption and housing. (3) Family type was the main diver influencing personal carbon emissions in the Huangnan Prefecture, Guoluo Prefecture, and Yushu Prefecture. The more people living in the household, the lower the per capita carbon emissions. However, the effect size of potential carbon reductions was weakened when the number of family members rose to over three. (4) We propose that grazing prohibitions and low-carbon dietary shifts would contribute to low-carbon herder livelihoods, especially for small-sized households that should be peer-to-peer targeted by regional government propaganda, which may help to strengthen the implementation of in-depth low-carbon promotions across the Sanjiangyuan region and even the overall Qinghai–Tibet Plateau.

Effect of Nitrogen Addition on Soil Fungal Diversity in a Degraded Alpine Meadow at Different Slopes

This study proposed nitrogen addition experiments to analyze the effects of exogenous nitrogen addition on soil fungal diversity in alpine meadow. All the experiments were performed in degraded alpine meadow with two different slopes (gentle slope and steep slope) in Guoluo Prefecture of the Sanjiangyuan Region, and the sequence and analysis of ITS of soil fungi were performed using MiSeq PE250 sequencing technology. Comparative analysis was carried out with three nitrogen addition levels on soil fungal diversity in degraded grassland with different slopes, which included low nitrogen (LN, 2 g·m-2), middle nitrogen (MN, 5 g·m-2), and high nitrogen (HN, 10 g·m-2). The results showed that:① the distribution groups of fungi in the soil were Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mortierellomycota, and Glomomycota, and the dominant bacteria was Ascomycota. ② The dominant genera were Mortierella and Archaeorhizomyces, and there were no differences in response to different slopes and nitrogen addition levels. ③ A total of 95 genera (Gibberellum, Preussia, etc.) were identified and significantly differed between two different slopes (P<0.05). ④ Bacteria with a relative abundance less than 1% had significant differences in nitrogen addition at different levels on the same slope (P<0.05). 5 In addition, the analyses of α and β diversities showed that soil fungal community structure was stable under different slopes and nitrogen addition levels. Exogenous nitrogen supplementation significantly improved the relative abundance of non-dominant fungal communities without destroying soil fungal community structure.

Prompt seismic data sharing for the 2021 Maduo earthquake in Qinghai province, China

An MS7.4 earthquake struck west China in Maduo county, Guoluo prefecture, Qinghai province on May 22, 2021, at 2:04 Beijing time (18:04 UTC on May 21, 2021), which broke the quiet period of Chinese mainland for 1382 days without earthquakes of magnitude 7 or higher. The analysis of the seismic data sequence would play an important role in the in-depth study of the Maduo earthquake and the Bayan Har block. The Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration (CEA), compiled observation data recorded through 57 broadband seismometers within 500 km of the earthquake epicenter and intended to share for further researches in earthquake science community. The shared dataset included waveforms of the event and its sequence with magnitudes of 3.0 or higher that occurred between May 22–31, 2021 with a sampling rate of 100 sps along with the continuous waveforms of 20 Hz and 100 Hz. Additionally, the seismic instrument response files also were shared. The event and continuous waveform records could be downloaded by submitting a request through the web platform of the Earthquake Science Data Center of the Institute of Geophysics, CEA (www.esdc.ac.cn).

Risk Assessment of Snow Disaster in Guoluo Prefecture of Southern Qinghai Province Based on GIS

We evaluated snow disaster risk in 44 towns of Guoluo Prefecture by combining the methods of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and cluster analysis. Data were gathered from meteorological stations in Qinghai and Sichuan Provinces with GIS and RS tools. We considered snow depth, the duration of snow days, the area ratio of snow as three indicators for such evaluation, we can say Guoluo Prefecture is a higher hazard area of snow disaster. From the spatial distribution, we can see that the mild grade areas are Huashixia town in Maduo county, Zhalinghu village and Dongqinggou village, Lajia town in Maqin county; the moderate and minor severe grade areas are distributed basically in every county. And the minor severe grade areas cover almost every town in Dari county and Gande county However, the severe grade areas only distribute in Sanrima village, Tehetu village of Dari County and Dangluo village of Maqin county.

Clinical characteristics of 175 cases with advanced hepatic alveolar echinococcosis

To investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with advanced hepatic alveolar echinococcosis, so as to provide more evidence for the diagnosis and treatment of advanced hepatic alveolar echinococcosis. The clinical records of 175 cases with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis admitted to the Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University from 2012 to 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. Among the 175 cases with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis, the male to female ratio was 1∶1.6, and the mean age was (38.6 ± 12.9) years (range, 11 to 69 years). 93.7% of the patients (164 cases) were Tibetan, and 79.4% (139 cases) were from Guoluo Prefecture. 73.7% (129 cases) were herdsmen, and 58.3% (102 cases) were illiterate. The major clinical symptoms included upper abdominal pain, yellowing of skin and mucosa, and scleral icterus. 69.1% of the lesions were located in bilateral livers, and 63.4% of the cases have 2 and more lesions. 53.7% of the cases have their inferior vena cava involved by the lesions. In addition, the most affected neighboring organ was diaphragmatic muscle (21.7%), and lung was the most affected distant metastatic site (40.6%). Advanced hepatic alveolar echinococcosis is highly prevalent in Guoluo Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Screening of this disease is required in this region and rational treatment scheme should be developed.

Epidemic status of alveolar echinococcosis in Tibetan children in south Qinghai Province

To understand the epidemic status of alveolar echinococcosis in Tibetan children in south Qinghai Province. The imageology and serology methods were applied to investigate the epidemic status of alveolar echinococcosis of elementary school students in Yushu and Guoluo prefectures. Totally 19 629 children were investigated by the portable B ultrasound and 221 children were diagnosed as alveolar echinococcosis with the morbidity of 1.13%. Totally 9 888 were investigated by the indirect ELISA, and the positive rate of serum tests was 12.59% (190/9 888). The total morbidity of alveolar echinococcosis of children in Yushu Prefecture was 0.42% (31/7 454) and it was 1.57% (190/12 175) in Guoluo Prefecture and there was a significant difference between them (χ2 = 53.42, P＜0.005). The sero-positive rates of children in Yushu and Guoluo were 4.26% (302/7 081) and 18.56% (1 835/9 888), respectively (χ2 = 765.77, P＜0.005). The counties with the highest prevalence of alveolar echinococcosis in children were Dari County (4.31%, 106/2 461) and Banma County (1.92%, 26/1 351) of Guoluo Prefecture, and Chengduo County (1.11%, 18/1 612) of Yushu Prefecture. The total morbidity rates of alveolar echinococcosis of male and female children were 0.91% (91/9 954) and 1.34% (130/12 175) respectively (χ2 = 7.35, P＜0.005). The total sero-positive rates of alveolar echinococcosis of male and female children were 12.10% (1 037/8 568) and 13.09% (1 100/8 406) respectively (χ2 = 3.63, P＞0.05). The total morbidity of alveolar echinococcosis of children in different age groups was from 1.00% to 1.13%, and there was no significant difference among the age groups (χ2 = 2.73, P＞0.05). The P1a type, P1b type and P2 type accounted for 67.76% (145/214), 10.75% (23/214) and 16.36% (35/ 214) respectively among the alveolar echinococcosis patients. The diameters of nidus of 87.38% (187/214) patients were less than 5 cm, and 2.80% (6/214) were more than 10 cm. The epidemic status of alveolar echinococcosis of Tibetan children in south Qinghai Province is serious, but most of the patients were at early stage of the disease. The screening work of alveolar echinococcosis should be strengthened in Tibetan children, so as to perform the early diagnosis and treatment.

Patterns and structures of land use change in the Three Rivers Headwaters Region of China.

Located in Qinghai Province of China, the Three Rivers Headwaters Region is the source region of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lantsang Rivers, and plays an important role in biodiversity conservation and regulating water supply. Despite many efforts on land use change in Qinghai, knowledge of the spatial variation of land use change is still lacking. This study examines the patterns of land use change across various watersheds, prefectures and the temple surroundings. Remote sensing images of 1987, 1997 and 2007 were analyzed to derive land use distributions; patterns and structures of the landscape were then quantified with landscape metrics. The results illustrated that the Yangtze River headwater region had more diverse and more evenly distributed landscape, while the Lantsang and the Yellow headwater regions showed a decline in landscape diversity. Comparison of the land use patterns of four prefectures revealed that Yushu Prefecture experienced an increase in landscape diversity from 1987 to 2007 while the land use patches in Guoluo Prefecture exhibited more aggregated patterns than other prefectures. Analysis of the spatial variations of land use change in the temple surroundings illustrated that 19.7% and 35.9% of the temples in Guoluo and Yushu Prefectures, respectively, encountered land use change for their immediate areas within 2 km. Comparison of the surroundings of temples and human settlements found that land use change was not evenly distributed, and that greater land use change had occurred for the surroundings of human settlements. Such findings provided insights into the spatial variation of land use change in the Three Rivers Headwaters Region.

The effects of biotic and abiotic factors on the spatial heterogeneity of alpine grassland vegetation at a small scale on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), China

Understanding the complex effects of biotic and abiotic factors on the composition of vegetation is very important for developing and implementing strategies for promoting sustainable grassland development. The vegetation-disturbance-environment relationship was examined in degraded alpine grasslands in the headwater areas of three rivers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in this study. The investigated hypotheses were that (1) the heterogeneity of the vegetation of the alpine grassland is due to a combination of biotic and abiotic factors and that (2) at a small scale, biotic factors are more important for the distribution of alpine vegetation. On this basis, four transects were set along altitudinal gradients from 3,770 to 3,890m on a sunny slope, and four parallel transects were set along altitudinal gradients on a shady slope in alpine grasslands in Guoluo Prefecture of Qinghai Province, China. It was found that biological disturbances were the major forces driving the spatial heterogeneity of the alpine grassland vegetation and abiotic factors were of secondary importance. Heavy grazing and intensive rat activity resulted in increases in unpalatable and poisonous weeds and decreased fine forages in the form of sedges, forbs, and grasses in the vegetation composition. Habitat degradation associated with biological disturbances significantly affected the spatial variation of the alpine grassland vegetation, i.e., more pioneer plants of poisonous or unpalatable weed species, such as Ligularia virgaurea and Euphorbia fischeriana, were found in bare patches. Environmental/abiotic factors were less important than biological disturbances in affecting the spatial distribution of the alpine grassland vegetation at a small scale. It was concluded that rat control and light grazing should be applied first in implementing restoration strategies. The primary vegetation in lightly grazed and less rat-damaged sites should be regarded as a reference for devising vegetation restoration measures in alpine pastoral regions.

Effect of Degradation Intensity on Grassland Ecosystem Services in the Alpine Region of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China

The deterioration of alpine grassland has great impact on ecosystem services in the alpine region of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. However, the effect of grassland degradation on ecosystem services and the consequence of grassland deterioration on economic loss still remains a mystery. So, in this study, we assessed four types of ecosystem services following the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment classification, along a degradation gradient. Five sites of alpine grassland at different levels of degradation were investigated in Guoluo Prefecture of Qinghai Province, China. The species composition, aboveground biomass, soil total organic carbon (TOC), and soil total nitrogen (TN) were tested to evaluate major ecological services of the alpine grassland. We estimated the value of primary production, carbon storage, nitrogen recycling, and plant diversity. The results show the ecosystem services of alpine grassland varied along the degradation gradient. The ecosystem services of degraded grassland (moderate, heavy and severe) were all significantly lower than non-degraded grassland. Interestingly, the lightly degraded grassland provided more economic benefit from carbon maintenance and nutrient sequestration compared to non-degraded. Due to the destruction of the alpine grassland, the economic loss associated with decrease of biomass in 2008 was $198/ha. Until 2008, the economic loss caused by carbon emissions and nitrogen loss on severely degraded grassland was up to $8 033/ha and $13 315/ha, respectively. Urgent actions are required to maintain or promote the ecosystem services of alpine grassland in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Change of Soil Organic Carbon Density of Alpine Meadow in the Headwater Areas of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the “World's Ridge”, exerts an proud impact carbon pool in sustaining global carbon circulation balance in terms of global climate change. In this study, five sites of alpine grassland at different degradation gradient were surveyed in Guoluo Prefecture of Qinghai Province, China. Soil total organic carbon (TOC) was tested for calculating the density of soil organic carbon, to evaluate the grassland ecosystem function of carbon maintenance. The results showed that the ecosystem function of carbon maintenance for alpine grassland varied along the degradation gradient. The function of both heavily degraded and severely degraded grasslands decreased a lot. However, the function of lightly degraded grassland increased a little compared to the non-degraded grassland. Urgent actions are needed to protect alpine grassland against heavy and severe degradation.

Widespread co-endemicity of human cystic and alveolar echinococcosis on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, northwest Sichuan/southeast Qinghai, China

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) or hydatid disease is known to be cosmopolitan in its global distribution, while alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a much rarer though more pathogenic hepatic parasitic disease restricted to the northern hemisphere. Both forms of human echinococcosis are known to occur on the Tibetan Plateau, but the epidemiological characteristics remain poorly understood. In our current study, abdominal ultrasound screening programs for echinococcosis were conducted in 31 Tibetan townships in Ganze and Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures of northwest Sichuan Province during 2001-2008. Hospital records (1992-2006) in a major regional treatment centre for echinococcosis in Sichuan Province were also reviewed. Of 10,186 local residents examined by portable ultrasound scan, 645 (6.3%) were diagnosed with echinococcosis: a prevalence of 3.2% for CE, 3.1% for AE and 0.04% for dual infection (both CE and AE). Human cystic and alveolar echinococcosis in pastoral areas was highly co-endemic, in comparison to much lower prevalences in semi-pastoral or farming regions. The high ultrasound prevalence in these co-endemic areas in northwest Sichuan Province was also reflected in the hospital study, and hospital records furthermore indicated another possible highly co-endemic focus in Guoluo Prefecture of Qinghai Province, located at the border of northwest Sichuan. These chronic cestode zoonoses constitute an unparalleled major public health problem for pastoral Tibetan communities, and pose great difficulties for adequate treatment access and effective transmission control in such remote regions.

Growth and milk performance of yak in southern Qinghai area (short communication)

Abstract. The Study carried out in Xueshan Township, Guoluo prefecture, Qinghai Province, P. R. China from 1997 to 1999 on 1) Growth regulation of yak from born to adult and 1/4 wild yak from born to one and half year; 2) The effect of nursing or not on the growth and development of dam; 3) Meat performance of local yak; 4)Milk productivity of female yak. It can be served as the theory basis from which crossbreed improvement of yak and government decision could be drawn.

ANALYSIS OF DIETS OF UPLAND BUZZARDS USING STABLE CARBON AND NITROGEN ISOTOPES

We measured the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios for muscles of the upland buzzards (Buteo hemilasius) and their potential food sources, plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae), Qinghai voles (Lasiopodomys fuscus), plateau zokors (Myospalax fontanierii), and several passerine bird species at the alpine meadow in Maduo county, Guoluo prefecture of Qinghai province, People's Republic of China, to provide diet information of upland buzzards, highlighting different diet composition of upland buzzards exposed to different locations. The results demonstrated that stable carbon isotope ratios of upland buzzards, passerine birds, plateau pikas, plateau zokors, and Qinghai voles were -24.42 +/- 0.25parts per thousand, -22.89 +/- 1.48parts per thousand, -25.30 +/- 1.47parts per thousand, -25.78 +/- 0.22parts per thousand, and -25.41 +/- 0.01parts per thousand, respectively, and stable nitrogen isotope ratios were 7.89 +/- 0.38parts per thousand, 8.37 +/- 2.05parts per thousand, 5.83 +/- 1.10parts per thousand, 5.23 +/- 0.34parts per thousand, and 8.86 +/- 0.06parts per thousand, respectively. Fractionation of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios between upland buzzards and their food were 1.03parts per thousand and 2.11parts per thousand, respectively. Based on mass balance principle of stable isotopes and the Euclidean distance mixing model, upland buzzards depended mainly on plateau pikas as food (74.56%). Plateau zokors, Qinghai voles, and passerine birds only contributed a small proportion (25.44%) to diets of upland buzzards. The results were closely accordant with analyses of stomach contents and food pellets, which firmly supported the feasibility of using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios to investigate diet information of upland buzzards. Another study based on stable carbon isotopes showed that upland buzzards living in the Haibei prefecture (another prefecture located in the southeast Qinghai province) mainly preyed on passerine birds (64.96% or more) as food supply. We were alarmed by the preliminary results that widespread poisoning activities of small mammals could reshape the food composition of upland buzzards, influencing the stability and sustainability of the alpine meadow. Bio-control on rodent pests should be carried out rather than the chemical measures.