Overgrazing leads to soil cracking that later triggers the severe degradation of alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 1243-1257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujie Niu ◽  
Huimin Zhu ◽  
Siwei Yang ◽  
Sujie Ma ◽  
Jianwei Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Soil Cracking

Soil cracking induced by overgrazing triggers the severe degradation or initiates the natural recovery of overgrazed alpine meadows on the Tibetan plateau?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujie Niu ◽  
Huimin Zhu ◽  
Siwei Yang ◽  
Jianwei Zhou ◽  
Bin Chu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Soil Compaction ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Eastern Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Patch Scale ◽  
Soil Cracking

<p>Soil cracking is an important feature of degraded terrestrial ecosystems, which cuts the closed and intact land, alters microtopography and also influences the dynamics of soil nutrients, water and heat, then further affect species distributions. Despite their importance, the patterns and causes of cracks related to overgrazing on alpine rangeland have rarely been reported previously, and the effects of cracks on soil properties and plant distributions are poorly understood. Therefore, we used a comprehensive cross-scale approach to investigate the distribution of crack-soil areas at the eastern Tibetan plateau (217 survey sites), then selected the grazing-induced parameter that was closely related to the cracks at a small scale, and quantified the effects of microtopography (raised areas and healed cracks) induced by cracking on the soil properties, and community composition at crack-mosaic patch from 2013-2018, then to evaluate the further roles of soil cracking on alpine rangelands. The results showed that cracks only formed in the alpine meadow after overstocking. The increased soil compaction under overgrazing was closely related to soil cracking. On crack patch scale, the healed cracks facilitated nutrient and water enrichment due to the increasing surface roughness, then improved the plant communities. To some extent, healed crack mosaics are good for the conservation of water and nutrients. We provide key and easy-to-measure indicators to prevent overgrazing and cracking: a residual biomass greater than 65 g/m<sup>2</sup> and a height greater than 6 cm, and the soil compaction should be lower than 1044.26 ± 188.88 kPa. We should pay more attention to crack phenomena to prevent severe degradation. Overgrazed alpine meadows should be treated in the early phase of cracking and it may be able to return to optimum conditions in healthy rangelands. Otherwise, soil cracking becomes the most critical turning point in the process of alpine rangeland severe degradation.</p>

Growing Season Ecosystem Respirations and Associated Component Fluxes in Two Alpine Meadows on the Tibetan Plateau

2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi-Wu Hu ◽  
Qin Wu ◽  
Guang-Min Cao ◽  
Dong Li ◽  
Rui-Jun Long ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Meadows

Effect of nitrification inhibitor on plant biomass and N2O emission rates in alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 410-418
Author(s):  
Yangong Du ◽  
Ying Xin ◽  
Kai Shu ◽  
Guangmin Cao ◽  
Huakun Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Nitrification Inhibitor ◽  
N2o Emission ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Emission Rates ◽  
Alpine Meadows

The effect of land management on carbon and nitrogen status in plants and soils of alpine meadows on the Tibetan plateau

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 405-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Y. Wang ◽  
Q. J. Wang ◽  
Ch. Y. Wang ◽  
H. L. Shi ◽  
Y. Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Land Management ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Nitrogen Status ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen

scholarly journals Some practical notes on the land surface modeling in the Tibetan Plateau

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 687-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Yang ◽  
Y.-Y. Chen ◽  
J. Qin
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
Central Plateau ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Common Land Model

Abstract. The Tibetan Plateau is a key region of land-atmosphere interactions, as it provides an elevated heat source to the middle-troposphere. The Plateau surfaces are typically characterized by alpine meadows and grasslands in the central and eastern part while by alpine deserts in the western part. This study evaluates performance of three state-of-the-art land surface models (LSMs) for the Plateau typical land surfaces. The LSMs of interest are SiB2 (the Simple Biosphere), CoLM (Common Land Model), and Noah. They are run at typical alpine meadow sites in the central Plateau and typical alpine desert sites in the western Plateau. The identified key processes and modeling issues are as follows. First, soil stratification is a typical phenomenon beneath the alpine meadows, with dense roots and soil organic matters within the topsoil, and it controls the profile of soil moisture in the central and eastern Plateau; all models, when using default parameters, significantly under-estimate the soil moisture within the topsoil. Second, a soil surface resistance controls the surface evaporation from the alpine deserts but it has not been reasonably modeled in LSMs; an advanced scheme for soil water flow is implemented in a LSM, based on which the soil resistance is determined from soil water content and meteorological conditions. Third, an excess resistance controls sensible heat fluxes from dry bare-soil or sparsely vegetated surfaces, and all LSMs significantly under-predict the ground-air temperature gradient, which would result in higher net radiation, lower soil heat fluxes and thus higher sensible heat fluxes in the models. A parameterization scheme for this resistance has been shown to be effective to remove these biases.

Life history of the plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) in alpine meadows of the Tibetan Plateau

2013 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiapeng Qu ◽  
Wenjing Li ◽  
Min Yang ◽  
Weihong Ji ◽  
Yanming Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Plateau Pika ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Ochotona Curzoniae ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals A Comprehensive Evaluation of 4-Parameter Diurnal Temperature Cycle Models with In Situ and MODIS LST over Alpine Meadows in the Tibetan Plateau

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Yaping Chang ◽  
Yongjian Ding ◽  
Qiudong Zhao ◽  
Shiqiang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
High Accuracy ◽  
Half Width ◽  
Temperature Cycle ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Meadows ◽  
Diurnal Temperature ◽  
In Situ Data

Diurnal variation of land surface temperature (LST) is essential for land surface energy and water balance at regional or global scale. Diurnal temperature cycle (DTC) model with least parameters and high accuracy is the key issue in estimating the spatial–temporal variation of DTC. The alpine meadow is the main land cover in the Tibetan Plateau (TP). However, few studies have been reported on the performance of different DTC models over alpine meadows in the TP. Four semi-empirical types of DTC models were used to generate nine 4-parameter (4-para) models by fixing some of free parameters. The performance of the nine 4-para DTC models were evaluated with four in situ and MODIS observations. All models except GOT09-dT-ts (dT means the temperature residual between T0 and T (t→∞); ts means the time when free attenuation begins) had higher correlation with in situ data (R2 > 0.9), while the INA08-ts model performed best with NSE of 0.99 and RMSE of 2.04 K at all sites. The GOT09-ts-τ (τ is the total optical thickness), VAN06-ts-ω1 (ω1 means the half-width of the cosine term in the morning), and GOT01-ts models had better performance, followed by GOT09-dT-τ, GOT01-dT, and VAN06-ts-ω2 (ω2 means the half-width of the cosine term in the afternoon) models. All models had higher accuracy in summer than in other seasons, while poorer performance was produced in winter. The INA08-ts model showed best performance among all seasons. Models with fixing ts could produce higher accuracy results than that with fixing dT. The comparison of INA08-ts model driven by in situ and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data indicated that the simulation accuracy mainly depended on the accuracy of MODIS LST. The daily maximum temperature generated by the nine models had high accuracy when compared with in situ data. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the INA08-dT and GOT09-dT-ts models were more sensitive to parameter dT, while all models were insensitive to parameter ts, and all models had weak relationship with parameters ω and τ. This study provides a reference for exploring suitable DTC model in the TP.

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