scholarly journals Assessment of the vulnerability of alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e8513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Li ◽  
Xianzhou Zhang ◽  
Yongtao He ◽  
Ben Niu ◽  
Jianshuang Wu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Spatial Pattern ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Grazing Intensity ◽  
Alpine Grasslands ◽  
Ecosystem Vulnerability ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
Desert Steppes ◽  
Grassland Types

Assessing ecosystem vulnerability to climate change is critical for sustainable and adaptive ecosystem management. Alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau are considered to be vulnerable to climate change, yet the ecosystem tends to maintain stability by increasing resilience and decreasing sensitivity. To date, the spatial pattern of grassland vulnerability to climate change and the mechanisms that vegetation applies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on grasslands by altering relevant ecosystem characteristics, especially sensitivity and resilience, remain unknown. In this study, we first assessed the spatial pattern of grassland vulnerability to climate change by integrating exposure, sensitivity, and resilience simultaneously, and then identified its driving forces. The results show that grasslands with high vulnerability were mainly located on the edges of the plateau, whereas alpine grasslands in the hinterlands of the plateau showed a low vulnerability. This spatial pattern of alpine grassland vulnerability was controlled by climatic exposure, and grassland sensitivity and resilience to climate change might also exacerbate or alleviate the degree of vulnerability. Climate change had variable impacts on different grassland types. Desert steppes were more vulnerable to climate change than alpine meadows and alpine steppes because of the high variability in environmental factors and their low ability to recover from perturbations. Our findings also confirm that grazing intensity, a quantitative index of the most important human disturbance on alpine grasslands in this plateau, was significantly correlated with ecosystem vulnerability. Moderate grazing intensity was of benefit for increasing grassland resilience and then subsequently reducing grassland vulnerability. Thus, this study suggests that future assessments of ecosystem vulnerability should not ignore anthropogenic disturbances, which might benefit environmental protection and sustainable management of grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

scholarly journals Community assembly and functional leaf traits mediate precipitation use efficiency of alpine grasslands along environmental gradients on the Tibetan Plateau

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaowei Li ◽  
Jianshuang Wu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Grasslands ◽  
Moisture Index ◽  
Use Efficiency

The alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau are sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. However, it is still unknown how precipitation use efficiency (PUE), the ratio of ANPP to precipitation, is related to community assembly of plant species, functional groups or traits for the Tibetan alpine grasslands along actual environmental gradients. We conducted a multi-site field survey at grazing-excluded pastures across meadow, steppe and desert-steppe to measure aboveground biomass in August, 2010. We used species richness, the Shannon diversity index, and cover-weighted functional group composition (FGC) of 1-xerophytes, 2-mesophytes, and 3-hygrophytes to describe community assembly at the species level; and chose community-level leaf area index (LAIc ), specific leaf area (SLAc ), and species-mixed foliar δ13C to quantify community assembly at the functional trait level. Our results showed that PUE decreased with increasing accumulated active temperatures (AccT) when daily temperature average is higher than 5°C, but increased with increasing climatic moisture index, which was demined as the ratio of growing season precipitation (GSP) to AccT. We also found that PUE increased with increasing species richness, the Shannon diversity index, FGC and LAIc ,decreased with increasing foliar δ13C, and had no relation with SLAc at the regional scale. Neither soil total nitrogen nor organic carbon has no influence on PUE at the regional scale. The community assembly of the Shannon index, LAIc and SLAc together accounted for 46.3 % of variance in PUE, whilst climatic moisture index accounted for 47.9 % of variance in PUE at the regional scale. This implies that community structural properties and plant functional traits can mediate the sensitivity of alpine grassland productivity in response to climate change. Thus, a long-term observation on community structural and functional changes is recommended for better understanding the response of alpine ecosystems to regional climate change on the Tibetan Plateau.

scholarly journals Community assembly and functional leaf traits mediate precipitation use efficiency of alpine grasslands along environmental gradients on the Tibetan Plateau

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaowei Li ◽  
Jianshuang Wu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Alpine Grasslands ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Precipitation Use Efficiency

The alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau are sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. However, it is still unknown how precipitation use efficiency (PUE), the ratio of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) to precipitation, is related to community assembly of plant species, functional groups or traits for the Tibetan alpine grasslands along actual environmental gradients. We conducted a multi-site field survey at grazing-excluded pastures across meadow, steppe and desert-steppe to measure aboveground biomass (AGB) in August, 2010. We used species richness (SR), the Shannon diversity index, and cover-weighted functional group composition (FGC) of 1-xerophytes, 2-mesophytes, and 3-hygrophytes to describe community assembly at the species level; and chose community-level leaf area index (LAIc), specific leaf area (SLAc), and species-mixed foliar δ13C to quantify community assembly at the functional trait level. Our results showed that PUE decreased with increasing accumulated active temperatures (AccT) when daily temperature average is higher than 5 °C, but increased with increasing climatic moisture index (CMI), which was demined as the ratio of growing season precipitation (GSP) to AccT. We also found that PUE increased with increasing SR, the Shannon diversity index, FGC and LAIc, decreased with increasing foliar δ13C, and had no relation with SLAcat the regional scale. Neither soil total nitrogen (STN) nor organic carbon has no influence on PUE at the regional scale. The community assembly of the Shannon index, LAIcand SLActogether accounted for 46.3% of variance in PUE, whilst CMI accounted for 47.9% of variance in PUE at the regional scale. This implies that community structural properties and plant functional traits can mediate the sensitivity of alpine grassland productivity in response to climate change. Thus, a long-term observation on community structural and functional changes is recommended for better understanding the response of alpine ecosystems to regional climate change on the Tibetan Plateau.

scholarly journals Natural areas as a basis for assessing ecosystem vulnerability to climate change

Ecosphere ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret H. Massie ◽  
Todd M. Wilson ◽  
Anita T. Morzillo ◽  
Emilie B. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Areas ◽  
Ecosystem Vulnerability ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change

scholarly journals A New Framework to Assess Relative Ecosystem Vulnerability to Climate Change

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. e12372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvin Ka Fai Lee ◽  
Clare Duncan ◽  
Harry Jon Foord Owen ◽  
Nathalie Pettorelli
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Vulnerability ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
New Framework
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