Modeling impacts of climate change and grazing effects on plant biomass and soil organic carbon in the Qinghai–Tibetan grasslands
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: . The Qinghai Province supports over 40 % of the human population but occupies about 29 % of the land area, and thus it plays an important role in the entire Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP). The dominant land cover is grassland, which has been severely degraded over the last decade due to a combination of increased human activities and climate change. Numerous studies indicate that the plateau is sensitive to recent global climate change, but the drivers and consequences of grassland ecosystem change are controversial, especially the effects of climate change and grazing patterns on the grassland biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in this region. In this study, we used the DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) model and two climate change scenarios (representative concentration pathways: RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) to understand how the grassland biomass and SOC pools might respond to different grazing intensities under future climate change scenarios. More than 1400 grassland biomass sampling points and 46 SOC points were collected, which were then used to validate the simulated results. The results showed that compared with the past 30 years, the biomass and SOC exhibited a significant decreasing trend under all grazing intensities in the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, and RCP8.5 had a more negative future effect on the biomass compared with RCP4.5. Thus, future climate change could lead to greater temporal and spatial variations in the grassland biomass and SOC. Overall, climate change may be the major factor that leads to fluctuations in the inter-annual grassland biomass on the Qinghai Province, where the grazing intensity has significantly affected the grassland vegetation dynamics. Therefore, urgent ecological conservation of vulnerable grassland ecosystems is required to effectively regulate grazing practices.
Source: Biogeosciences
Authors: Wenjuan Zhang, Feng Zhang, Jiaguo Qi, Fujiang Hou
Language: English
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,628
OpenAlex ID: W2746900940