Climate change and human activities such as overgrazing and rapid development of tourism simultaneously affected the vegetation of the Zoige Plateau.However,the spatiotemporal variations of vegetation and the relative...Climate change and human activities such as overgrazing and rapid development of tourism simultaneously affected the vegetation of the Zoige Plateau.However,the spatiotemporal variations of vegetation and the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to these vegetation dynamics remain unclear.Therefore,clarifying how and why the vegetation on the Zoige Plateau changed can provide a scientific basis for the sustainable development of the region.Here,we investigate NDVI trends using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)as an indicator of vegetation greenness and distinguish the relative effects of climate changes and human activities on vegetation changes by utilizing residual trend analysis and the Geodetector.We find a tendency of vegetation greening from 2001 to 2020,with significant greening accounting for 21.44%of the entire region.However,browning area expanded rapidly after 2011.Warmer temperatures are the primary driver of vegetation changes in the Zoige Plateau.Climatic variations and human activities were responsible for 65.57%and 34.43%of vegetation greening,and 39.14%and 60.86%of vegetation browning,respectively,with browning concentrated along the Yellow,Black and White Rivers.Compared to 2001-2010,the inhibitory effect of human activity and climate fluctuations on vegetation grew dramatically between 2011 and 2020.展开更多
Peatlands are one of the major natural sources of methane (CH4), but the level of CH4 efflux is uncertain, especially in alpine peatlands. In this study, CH4 emission fluxes from natural and drained peatlands on the...Peatlands are one of the major natural sources of methane (CH4), but the level of CH4 efflux is uncertain, especially in alpine peatlands. In this study, CH4 emission fluxes from natural and drained peatlands on the Qinghai- Tibet Plateau, southwest China, were measured from June to October in 2013 using the opaque static chamber technique and the Fast Greenhouse Gas Analyzer (DLT-100, Los Gatos Research Corp.). CH4 emission fluxes ranged from 2.07 to 56.33 mg m^-2 h^-1 in natural peatlands and from 0.02 to 0.42 mg m^-2 h^-1 in drained peatlands. Mean CH4 emission flux was 19.13 mg m^-2 h^-1 in natural peatlands and 0.14 mg m^-2 h^-1 in drained peatlands. These results showed that drainage led to a significant decrease in CH4 emissions. CH4 emission fluxes for all sampling plots were significantly correlated with variation in water table depth for linear (R^2 = 0.453, P 〈 0.01) and exponential functions (R^2 = 0.429, P 〈 0.01).展开更多
Zoige Wetland is one of the largest plateau wetlands in the world. This paper provides a dynamic analysis of spatial and temporal patterns of the wetland in Zoige, Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, supported by ERDAS8....Zoige Wetland is one of the largest plateau wetlands in the world. This paper provides a dynamic analysis of spatial and temporal patterns of the wetland in Zoige, Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, supported by ERDAS8.7 and ArcGIS9.0. It is the first comparative analysis of a system of rapidly changing wetland with landscape patterns in Zoige, using 3 classified landsat Thematic Mapper images of 1977, 1994 and 2001. The classified images were used to generate wetland distributing maps, and shape index (S), diversity index (H), dominance index (D), evenness index (E), fragmentation index (F) and fractal dimension (Fd) were calculated and analyzed spatiotemporally across pure grazing area in Zoige for each landscape type and in different periods (before 1977, during 1977-1994 and 1994-2001), as well as the driving forces of natural and anthropogenic. The study shows that for a comprehensive understanding of the shapes and trajectories of the shrinking and desertificated land expansion of the wetland, a spatiotemporal landscape metrics analysis in different periods is an improvement than only with landscape changing rates. This type of analysis can also be used to infer underlying social, economic, and political processes that drive the observed wetland forms. The results indicate that wetland patterns can be changed over relatively short periods of time. The total area of lake reduced by 164.86 km^2, grassland extended by 141.74 km^2, semi-marsh extended by 105.94 km^2, marsh reduced by 86.00 km^2 the number of landscape patches reduced by 56, and their average area decreased by 2.68 km^2, the successions within lake, marsh, semi-marsh and grassland were found obviously. S decreased stepwise: D and F increased but H decreased: The changing rate after 1994 was 2.3 to 2.9 times greater than that before. The change of the wetland landscape patterns resulted in the interaction between socio-ceenomic and natural forces of positive and negative aspects; and natural factors affected as assistant aspect. Some important human activities in this period led to the change of the landscape patterns in this region directly. Some measurements made by government and NGO delayed the converting process partly.展开更多
The Zoige Wetland is located in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which is highly sensitive to global environment change and human disturbance because of its high elevation and cold environment, thus, it's a ...The Zoige Wetland is located in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which is highly sensitive to global environment change and human disturbance because of its high elevation and cold environment, thus, it's a hotspot for land use and land cover change (LUCC) research. We used Landsat MSS images from 1975, Landsat ETM images from 2000, and Landsat TM images fi:om 1990 and 2005 to assess the LUCC in the study area, using GIS techniques, as well as topographic, vegetation, and soil maps combined with field investigations. The monitoring result shows that the study area's environment degraded rapidly between 1975 and 2005, including wetland shrinkage from 5,308 km2 to 4,980 lan2, sandy land expansion from 112 krn2 to 137 krn2, forest land decreasing from 5,686 km2 to 5,443 km2, and grassland degradation from 12,309 km2 to 10,672 km2. According to the analysis of meteorological data and social-economic statistical data, we concluded that the LUCC in the Zoige Wetland was caused by both natural and anthropogenic factors, but human activities were primarily responsible for the observed LUCC, thereby, we suggest human behaviors must be adjusted to control environmental degradation.展开更多
The high Zoige Basin (Ruoergai Plateau) on the eastern Tibetan Plateau is a fault depression formed during intensive uplifting of the Tibetan Plateau. The wetland is globally important in biodiversity and is compose...The high Zoige Basin (Ruoergai Plateau) on the eastern Tibetan Plateau is a fault depression formed during intensive uplifting of the Tibetan Plateau. The wetland is globally important in biodiversity and is composed of marshes, bogs, fens, wet meadows and shallow water interspersed with low hills and sub-alpine meadows. Most of the Zoige wetlands have long been one of the most important grazing lands in China. Recent rangeland policy has allowed grazing, and usable wetland areas have been being legally allocated to individuals or groups of households on a long-term lease basis. Privatizafion of the wetland has impacted the Zoige wetlands in aspects of hydrologic condition, landscape and biodiversity. The uneven spatial distribution of water resources onprivatelands has led to the practice of extracting ground water, which has decreased the perched water table in Zoige. Fencing off the rangelands and grazing on expanding sand dunes have affected landscapes. Variation in the water table has led to the changes in vegetation diversity, resulting in the changes in wildlife and aquatic diversities and ecosystem processes. Making use all year round of the pasture that was previously grazed only in summer has shrunk the daily activity space of wildlife, and the newly erected fences blocked the movement of wild animals looking for food in the snow to lower and open areas. To maintain the favorable conditions of the Zoige wetland ecosystem, the author suggests that, in addition to biophysical research and implementation of conservation practices, there is an immediate need to initiate an integrated management program, increase public awareness of wetland functions and provide better training for the local conservation staff.展开更多
Alpine grassland of the Tibetan Plateau has undergone severe degradation, even desertification. However, several questions remain to be answered, especially the response mechanisms of vegetation biomass to soil proper...Alpine grassland of the Tibetan Plateau has undergone severe degradation, even desertification. However, several questions remain to be answered, especially the response mechanisms of vegetation biomass to soil properties. In this study, an experiment on degradation gradients was conducted in an alpine meadow at the Zoige Plateau in 2017. Both vegetation characteristics and soil properties were observed during the peak season of plant growth. The classification and regression tree model(CART) and structural equation modelling(SEM) were applied to screen the main factors that govern the vegetation dynamics and explore the interaction of these screened factors. Both aboveground biomass(AGB) and belowground biomass(BGB) experienced a remarkable decrease along the degradation gradients. All soil properties experienced significant variations along the degradation gradients at the 0.05 significance level. Soil physical and chemical properties explained 54.78% of the variation in vegetation biomass along the degradation gradients. AGB was mainly influenced by soil water content(SWC), soil bulk density(SBD), soil organic carbon(SOC), soil total nitrogen(STN), and pH. Soil available nitrogen(SAN), SOC and p H, had significant influence on BGB. Most soil properties had positive effects on AGB and BGB, while SBD and p H had a slightly negative effect on AGB and BGB. The correlations of SWC with AGB and BGB were relatively less significant than those of other soil properties. Our results highlighted that the soil properties played important roles in regulating vegetation dynamics along the degradation gradients and that SWC is not the main factor limiting plant growth in the humid Zoige region. Our results can provide guidance for the restoration and improvement of degraded alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau.展开更多
Zoige Plateau wetlands are located in the northeastern corner of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.The landscape pattern evolution processes in the Zoige Plateau and their driving factors were identified by analyzing the dyna...Zoige Plateau wetlands are located in the northeastern corner of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.The landscape pattern evolution processes in the Zoige Plateau and their driving factors were identified by analyzing the dynamic changes in landscape modification and conversion and their dynamic rates of alpine wetlands over the past four decades.The results showed that the landscape conversion between wetlands and non-wetlands mainly occurred during the period from 1966 to 1986.The marsh wetland area converted from lake and river wetlands was larger because of swamping compared to other wetland landscapes.Meanwhile,the larger area of marsh wetlands was also converted to lake wetlands more than other types of wetlands.The modification processes mainly occurred among natural wetland landscapes in the first three periods.Obvious conversions were observed between wetland and nonwetland landscapes(i.e.,forestland,grassland,and other landscapes) in the Zoige Plateau.These natural wetland landscapes such as river,lake and marsh wetlands showed a net loss over the past four decades,whereas artificial wetland landscapes(i.e.,paddy field and reservoir and pond wetlands) showed a net decrease.The annual dynamic rate of the whole wetland landscape was 0.72%,in which the annual dynamic rate of river wetlands was the highest,followed by lake wetlands,while marsh wetlands had the lowest dynamic rate.The integrated landscape dynamic rate showed a decreasing trend in the first three periods.The changes in wetland landscape patterns were comprehensively controlled by natural factors and human activities,especially human activities play an important role in changing wetland landscape patterns.展开更多
Accurate wetland delineation is the basis of wetland definition and mapping, and is of great importance for wetland management and research. The Zoige Plateau on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was used as a research site f...Accurate wetland delineation is the basis of wetland definition and mapping, and is of great importance for wetland management and research. The Zoige Plateau on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was used as a research site for research on alpine wetland delineation. Several studies have analyzed the spatiotemporal pattern and dynamics of these alpine wetlands, but none have addressed the issues of wetland boundaries. The objective of this work was to discriminate the upper boundaries of alpine wetlands by coupling ecological methods and satellite observations. The combination of Landsat 8 images and supervised classification was an effective method for rapid identification of alpine wetlands in the Zoig6 Plateau. Wet meadow was relatively stable compared with hydric soils and wetland hydrology and could be used as a primary indicator for discriminating the upper boundaries of alpine wetlands. A slope of less than 4.5° could be used as the threshold value for wetland delineation. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in 434 field sites showed that a threshold value of 0.3 could distinguish grasslands from emergent marsh and wet meadow in September. The median normalized difference water index (NDWI) of emergent marsh remained more stable than that of wet meadow and grasslands during the period from September until July of the following year. The index of mean density in wet meadow zones was higher than the emergent and upland zones. Over twice the number of species occurred in the wet meadow zone compared with the emergent zone, and close to the value of upland zone. Alpine wetlands in the three reserves in 2014 covered 1175.19 kin2 with a classification accuracy of 75.6%. The combination of ecological methods and remote sensing technology will play an important role in wetland delineation at medium and small scales. The correct differentiation between wet meadow and grasslands is the key to improving the accuracy of future wetland delineation.展开更多
The ecological concept of Plant Functional Types(PFTs), which refers to the assemblage of plants with certain functional traits, has been introduced for the study of plant responses to the environment change and hum...The ecological concept of Plant Functional Types(PFTs), which refers to the assemblage of plants with certain functional traits, has been introduced for the study of plant responses to the environment change and human disturbance. Taking the alpine meadow community in the Zoigê Plateau as a study case, this paper classified PFTs in terms of plant nutrition traits. The sequential results are as follows.(1) The main herbages in the Zoigê Plateau included 16 species in 5 families. Among the five families, Cyperaceae vegetation accounted for 81.37%of herbage area in total, while the remaining 4families occupied less than 20%. As for the species,Kobresia setchwanensis Hand.-Maizz. was dominant,accounting for 48.74% of the total area; while the remaining 51.26% was comprised of Polygonum viviparum L., Anaphalis fiavescens Hand.-Mazz.,Stipa aliena Keng and other species.(2) By using the Principal Component Analysis(PCA), the assessment of herbages nutrition was carried out based on the comprehensive multi-index evaluation model.Polygonum viviparum L. had the highest nutritional value score(1.43), and Stipa aliena Keng had the lowest(-1.40). Nutritional value of herbage species had a significantly positive correlation with altitude(P<0.01) in the Zoigê Plateau.(3) Based on the nutritional values, herbages in the Zoigê Plateau could be grouped into 3 nutrition PFTs(high, medium and low) by using the Natural Breaks(Jenks) method.展开更多
Although mathematical models(e.g., De Nitrification and De Composition(DNDC) provide a powerful tool to study regional carbon budget, it is still difficult to obtain accurate simulation results because there exists la...Although mathematical models(e.g., De Nitrification and De Composition(DNDC) provide a powerful tool to study regional carbon budget, it is still difficult to obtain accurate simulation results because there exists large uncertainties in modeling regional carbon budget. Through the investigation on the sensitivity of model output parameters to the input parameters, sensitivity analysis(SA) has been proved to be able to identify the key sources of uncertainties and be helpful to reduce the model uncertainties. However, some input parameters with discrete values(e.g., land use type and soil type) and the regional effect of the sensitive parameters were rarely examined in SA. In this paper, taking the Zoige Plateau as a case area, we combined the one-factor-ata-time(OAT) with Extended Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test(EFAST) to conduct a SA of DNDC for simulating the regional carbon budget, including Gross Primary Productivity(GPP), Net Primary Productivity(NPP), Net Ecosystem Productivity(NEP), autotrophic respiration(Ra), soil microbial heterotrophic respiration(Rh) and ecosystem respiration(Re). The result showed that the combination of OAT and EFAST could test the contribution of the input parameters with discrete values to the output parameters. In DNDC model, land use type and soil type had a significant impact on the regional carbon budget of the Zoige Plateau, and daily temperature was also confirmed to be one of the most important parameters for carbon budget. For the other input parameters, with the change of land use type or soil type at regional scale, the sensitive parameters of carbon budget would vary accordingly. The SA results would provide scientific evidence to optimize DNDC model and they suggested that we should pay attention to the spatial/temporal effect of SA and try to use the appropriate data in simulation of the regional carbon budget.展开更多
The wetlands on the Zoige Plateau have experienced serious degradation,with most of the original marsh being converted to marsh meadow or meadow.Based on the 3 wetland degradation stages,we determined the effects of w...The wetlands on the Zoige Plateau have experienced serious degradation,with most of the original marsh being converted to marsh meadow or meadow.Based on the 3 wetland degradation stages,we determined the effects of wetland degradation on the structure and relative abundance of nitrogencycling(nitrogen-fixing,ammonia-oxidizing,and denitrifying) microbial communities in 3 soil types(intact wetland:marsh soil;early degrading wetland:marsh meadow soil;and degraded wetland:meadow soil) using 454-pyrosequencing.The structure and relative abundance of nitrogen-cycling microbial communities differed in the 3 soil types.Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum in most soil samples but the most abundant soil nitrogenfixing and denitrifying microbial bacteria differed at the class,order,family,and genus levels among the 3soil types.At the genus level,the majority of nitrogenfixing bacterium sequences related to Bradyrhizobium were from marsh and marsh meadow soils;whereas those related to Geobacter originated from meadow soil.The majority of ammonia-oxidizing bacterium sequences related to Nitrosospira were from marsh(except for the 40-60 cm layer),marsh meadow and meadow soils;whereas those related to Candidatus Solibacter originated from 40-60 cm layer of marsh soil.The majority of denitrifying bacterium sequences related to Candidatus Solibacter and Anaeromyxobacter were from marsh and meadow soils;whereas those related to Herbaspirillum originated from meadow soil.The distribution of operational taxonomic units(OTUs)and species were correlated with soil type based upon Venn and Principal Coordinates Analysis(PCoA).Changes in soil type,caused by different water regimes were the most important factors influencing compositional changes in the nitrogen-fixing,ammonia-oxidizing,and denitrifying microbial communities.展开更多
基金partially financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.42201439)Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology(Grant No.2022NSFSC1082)Key Laboratory of Smart Earth(No.KF2023YB02-12).
文摘Climate change and human activities such as overgrazing and rapid development of tourism simultaneously affected the vegetation of the Zoige Plateau.However,the spatiotemporal variations of vegetation and the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to these vegetation dynamics remain unclear.Therefore,clarifying how and why the vegetation on the Zoige Plateau changed can provide a scientific basis for the sustainable development of the region.Here,we investigate NDVI trends using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)as an indicator of vegetation greenness and distinguish the relative effects of climate changes and human activities on vegetation changes by utilizing residual trend analysis and the Geodetector.We find a tendency of vegetation greening from 2001 to 2020,with significant greening accounting for 21.44%of the entire region.However,browning area expanded rapidly after 2011.Warmer temperatures are the primary driver of vegetation changes in the Zoige Plateau.Climatic variations and human activities were responsible for 65.57%and 34.43%of vegetation greening,and 39.14%and 60.86%of vegetation browning,respectively,with browning concentrated along the Yellow,Black and White Rivers.Compared to 2001-2010,the inhibitory effect of human activity and climate fluctuations on vegetation grew dramatically between 2011 and 2020.
基金financially supported by Grant Projects on Clean Development Mechanism in China(No.2012076)the special basic scientific research expenses from Research Institute of Forestry New Technology,Chinese Academy of Forestry(No.CAFINT2014K06)
文摘Peatlands are one of the major natural sources of methane (CH4), but the level of CH4 efflux is uncertain, especially in alpine peatlands. In this study, CH4 emission fluxes from natural and drained peatlands on the Qinghai- Tibet Plateau, southwest China, were measured from June to October in 2013 using the opaque static chamber technique and the Fast Greenhouse Gas Analyzer (DLT-100, Los Gatos Research Corp.). CH4 emission fluxes ranged from 2.07 to 56.33 mg m^-2 h^-1 in natural peatlands and from 0.02 to 0.42 mg m^-2 h^-1 in drained peatlands. Mean CH4 emission flux was 19.13 mg m^-2 h^-1 in natural peatlands and 0.14 mg m^-2 h^-1 in drained peatlands. These results showed that drainage led to a significant decrease in CH4 emissions. CH4 emission fluxes for all sampling plots were significantly correlated with variation in water table depth for linear (R^2 = 0.453, P 〈 0.01) and exponential functions (R^2 = 0.429, P 〈 0.01).
基金supported by China Scholarship, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCXI-07, KSCX2-01-09)the Ministry of Science & Technology of China (2004BA606A-05)Sichuan provincial training foundation for Science & Technology leader ,Sichuan youth foundation.
文摘Zoige Wetland is one of the largest plateau wetlands in the world. This paper provides a dynamic analysis of spatial and temporal patterns of the wetland in Zoige, Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, supported by ERDAS8.7 and ArcGIS9.0. It is the first comparative analysis of a system of rapidly changing wetland with landscape patterns in Zoige, using 3 classified landsat Thematic Mapper images of 1977, 1994 and 2001. The classified images were used to generate wetland distributing maps, and shape index (S), diversity index (H), dominance index (D), evenness index (E), fragmentation index (F) and fractal dimension (Fd) were calculated and analyzed spatiotemporally across pure grazing area in Zoige for each landscape type and in different periods (before 1977, during 1977-1994 and 1994-2001), as well as the driving forces of natural and anthropogenic. The study shows that for a comprehensive understanding of the shapes and trajectories of the shrinking and desertificated land expansion of the wetland, a spatiotemporal landscape metrics analysis in different periods is an improvement than only with landscape changing rates. This type of analysis can also be used to infer underlying social, economic, and political processes that drive the observed wetland forms. The results indicate that wetland patterns can be changed over relatively short periods of time. The total area of lake reduced by 164.86 km^2, grassland extended by 141.74 km^2, semi-marsh extended by 105.94 km^2, marsh reduced by 86.00 km^2 the number of landscape patches reduced by 56, and their average area decreased by 2.68 km^2, the successions within lake, marsh, semi-marsh and grassland were found obviously. S decreased stepwise: D and F increased but H decreased: The changing rate after 1994 was 2.3 to 2.9 times greater than that before. The change of the wetland landscape patterns resulted in the interaction between socio-ceenomic and natural forces of positive and negative aspects; and natural factors affected as assistant aspect. Some important human activities in this period led to the change of the landscape patterns in this region directly. Some measurements made by government and NGO delayed the converting process partly.
基金support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.41201002)Foundation for Excellent Youth Scholars of Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute,Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.51Y184A61)+1 种基金China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project(Grant No.2012M512050)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.41130533,41171010)
文摘The Zoige Wetland is located in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which is highly sensitive to global environment change and human disturbance because of its high elevation and cold environment, thus, it's a hotspot for land use and land cover change (LUCC) research. We used Landsat MSS images from 1975, Landsat ETM images from 2000, and Landsat TM images fi:om 1990 and 2005 to assess the LUCC in the study area, using GIS techniques, as well as topographic, vegetation, and soil maps combined with field investigations. The monitoring result shows that the study area's environment degraded rapidly between 1975 and 2005, including wetland shrinkage from 5,308 km2 to 4,980 lan2, sandy land expansion from 112 krn2 to 137 krn2, forest land decreasing from 5,686 km2 to 5,443 km2, and grassland degradation from 12,309 km2 to 10,672 km2. According to the analysis of meteorological data and social-economic statistical data, we concluded that the LUCC in the Zoige Wetland was caused by both natural and anthropogenic factors, but human activities were primarily responsible for the observed LUCC, thereby, we suggest human behaviors must be adjusted to control environmental degradation.
文摘The high Zoige Basin (Ruoergai Plateau) on the eastern Tibetan Plateau is a fault depression formed during intensive uplifting of the Tibetan Plateau. The wetland is globally important in biodiversity and is composed of marshes, bogs, fens, wet meadows and shallow water interspersed with low hills and sub-alpine meadows. Most of the Zoige wetlands have long been one of the most important grazing lands in China. Recent rangeland policy has allowed grazing, and usable wetland areas have been being legally allocated to individuals or groups of households on a long-term lease basis. Privatizafion of the wetland has impacted the Zoige wetlands in aspects of hydrologic condition, landscape and biodiversity. The uneven spatial distribution of water resources onprivatelands has led to the practice of extracting ground water, which has decreased the perched water table in Zoige. Fencing off the rangelands and grazing on expanding sand dunes have affected landscapes. Variation in the water table has led to the changes in vegetation diversity, resulting in the changes in wildlife and aquatic diversities and ecosystem processes. Making use all year round of the pasture that was previously grazed only in summer has shrunk the daily activity space of wildlife, and the newly erected fences blocked the movement of wild animals looking for food in the snow to lower and open areas. To maintain the favorable conditions of the Zoige wetland ecosystem, the author suggests that, in addition to biophysical research and implementation of conservation practices, there is an immediate need to initiate an integrated management program, increase public awareness of wetland functions and provide better training for the local conservation staff.
基金Under the auspices of the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(No.2017M620889)the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program(No.2019QZKK0405-05)the State Key Research Development Program of China(No.2016YFC0501803,2016YFC0501802)。
文摘Alpine grassland of the Tibetan Plateau has undergone severe degradation, even desertification. However, several questions remain to be answered, especially the response mechanisms of vegetation biomass to soil properties. In this study, an experiment on degradation gradients was conducted in an alpine meadow at the Zoige Plateau in 2017. Both vegetation characteristics and soil properties were observed during the peak season of plant growth. The classification and regression tree model(CART) and structural equation modelling(SEM) were applied to screen the main factors that govern the vegetation dynamics and explore the interaction of these screened factors. Both aboveground biomass(AGB) and belowground biomass(BGB) experienced a remarkable decrease along the degradation gradients. All soil properties experienced significant variations along the degradation gradients at the 0.05 significance level. Soil physical and chemical properties explained 54.78% of the variation in vegetation biomass along the degradation gradients. AGB was mainly influenced by soil water content(SWC), soil bulk density(SBD), soil organic carbon(SOC), soil total nitrogen(STN), and pH. Soil available nitrogen(SAN), SOC and p H, had significant influence on BGB. Most soil properties had positive effects on AGB and BGB, while SBD and p H had a slightly negative effect on AGB and BGB. The correlations of SWC with AGB and BGB were relatively less significant than those of other soil properties. Our results highlighted that the soil properties played important roles in regulating vegetation dynamics along the degradation gradients and that SWC is not the main factor limiting plant growth in the humid Zoige region. Our results can provide guidance for the restoration and improvement of degraded alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau.
基金financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No. 51179006)China National Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists (Grant No.51125035)+2 种基金National Science Foundation for Innovative Research Group (Grant No. 51121003)the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NECT-10-0235)the Fok Ying Tung Foundation (Grant No. 132009)
文摘Zoige Plateau wetlands are located in the northeastern corner of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.The landscape pattern evolution processes in the Zoige Plateau and their driving factors were identified by analyzing the dynamic changes in landscape modification and conversion and their dynamic rates of alpine wetlands over the past four decades.The results showed that the landscape conversion between wetlands and non-wetlands mainly occurred during the period from 1966 to 1986.The marsh wetland area converted from lake and river wetlands was larger because of swamping compared to other wetland landscapes.Meanwhile,the larger area of marsh wetlands was also converted to lake wetlands more than other types of wetlands.The modification processes mainly occurred among natural wetland landscapes in the first three periods.Obvious conversions were observed between wetland and nonwetland landscapes(i.e.,forestland,grassland,and other landscapes) in the Zoige Plateau.These natural wetland landscapes such as river,lake and marsh wetlands showed a net loss over the past four decades,whereas artificial wetland landscapes(i.e.,paddy field and reservoir and pond wetlands) showed a net decrease.The annual dynamic rate of the whole wetland landscape was 0.72%,in which the annual dynamic rate of river wetlands was the highest,followed by lake wetlands,while marsh wetlands had the lowest dynamic rate.The integrated landscape dynamic rate showed a decreasing trend in the first three periods.The changes in wetland landscape patterns were comprehensively controlled by natural factors and human activities,especially human activities play an important role in changing wetland landscape patterns.
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41201445,41103041)National Science and Technology Support Program(No.2012BAJ24B01)National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(No.2009AA12200307)
文摘Accurate wetland delineation is the basis of wetland definition and mapping, and is of great importance for wetland management and research. The Zoige Plateau on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was used as a research site for research on alpine wetland delineation. Several studies have analyzed the spatiotemporal pattern and dynamics of these alpine wetlands, but none have addressed the issues of wetland boundaries. The objective of this work was to discriminate the upper boundaries of alpine wetlands by coupling ecological methods and satellite observations. The combination of Landsat 8 images and supervised classification was an effective method for rapid identification of alpine wetlands in the Zoig6 Plateau. Wet meadow was relatively stable compared with hydric soils and wetland hydrology and could be used as a primary indicator for discriminating the upper boundaries of alpine wetlands. A slope of less than 4.5° could be used as the threshold value for wetland delineation. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in 434 field sites showed that a threshold value of 0.3 could distinguish grasslands from emergent marsh and wet meadow in September. The median normalized difference water index (NDWI) of emergent marsh remained more stable than that of wet meadow and grasslands during the period from September until July of the following year. The index of mean density in wet meadow zones was higher than the emergent and upland zones. Over twice the number of species occurred in the wet meadow zone compared with the emergent zone, and close to the value of upland zone. Alpine wetlands in the three reserves in 2014 covered 1175.19 kin2 with a classification accuracy of 75.6%. The combination of ecological methods and remote sensing technology will play an important role in wetland delineation at medium and small scales. The correct differentiation between wet meadow and grasslands is the key to improving the accuracy of future wetland delineation.
基金supported by the sub topics of National Key Technology R&D Program (Grant No. 2015BAC05B05-01)
文摘The ecological concept of Plant Functional Types(PFTs), which refers to the assemblage of plants with certain functional traits, has been introduced for the study of plant responses to the environment change and human disturbance. Taking the alpine meadow community in the Zoigê Plateau as a study case, this paper classified PFTs in terms of plant nutrition traits. The sequential results are as follows.(1) The main herbages in the Zoigê Plateau included 16 species in 5 families. Among the five families, Cyperaceae vegetation accounted for 81.37%of herbage area in total, while the remaining 4families occupied less than 20%. As for the species,Kobresia setchwanensis Hand.-Maizz. was dominant,accounting for 48.74% of the total area; while the remaining 51.26% was comprised of Polygonum viviparum L., Anaphalis fiavescens Hand.-Mazz.,Stipa aliena Keng and other species.(2) By using the Principal Component Analysis(PCA), the assessment of herbages nutrition was carried out based on the comprehensive multi-index evaluation model.Polygonum viviparum L. had the highest nutritional value score(1.43), and Stipa aliena Keng had the lowest(-1.40). Nutritional value of herbage species had a significantly positive correlation with altitude(P<0.01) in the Zoigê Plateau.(3) Based on the nutritional values, herbages in the Zoigê Plateau could be grouped into 3 nutrition PFTs(high, medium and low) by using the Natural Breaks(Jenks) method.
基金financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grants No.41271433,41571373,41301385)the International Cooperation Key Project of CAS(Grant No.GJHZ201320)+3 种基金the International Cooperation Partner Program of Innovative Team,CAS(Grant No.KZZD-EW-TZ-06)STS-Network Plan,CAS(KFJ-EW-STS-020-02)the Strategic Leader Science and Technology project(XDA05050105)“Hundred Talents”Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences
文摘Although mathematical models(e.g., De Nitrification and De Composition(DNDC) provide a powerful tool to study regional carbon budget, it is still difficult to obtain accurate simulation results because there exists large uncertainties in modeling regional carbon budget. Through the investigation on the sensitivity of model output parameters to the input parameters, sensitivity analysis(SA) has been proved to be able to identify the key sources of uncertainties and be helpful to reduce the model uncertainties. However, some input parameters with discrete values(e.g., land use type and soil type) and the regional effect of the sensitive parameters were rarely examined in SA. In this paper, taking the Zoige Plateau as a case area, we combined the one-factor-ata-time(OAT) with Extended Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test(EFAST) to conduct a SA of DNDC for simulating the regional carbon budget, including Gross Primary Productivity(GPP), Net Primary Productivity(NPP), Net Ecosystem Productivity(NEP), autotrophic respiration(Ra), soil microbial heterotrophic respiration(Rh) and ecosystem respiration(Re). The result showed that the combination of OAT and EFAST could test the contribution of the input parameters with discrete values to the output parameters. In DNDC model, land use type and soil type had a significant impact on the regional carbon budget of the Zoige Plateau, and daily temperature was also confirmed to be one of the most important parameters for carbon budget. For the other input parameters, with the change of land use type or soil type at regional scale, the sensitive parameters of carbon budget would vary accordingly. The SA results would provide scientific evidence to optimize DNDC model and they suggested that we should pay attention to the spatial/temporal effect of SA and try to use the appropriate data in simulation of the regional carbon budget.
基金financially supported by the 11th Five Years Key Programs for Science and Technology Development of China (Grant No.2007BAC18B03)
文摘The wetlands on the Zoige Plateau have experienced serious degradation,with most of the original marsh being converted to marsh meadow or meadow.Based on the 3 wetland degradation stages,we determined the effects of wetland degradation on the structure and relative abundance of nitrogencycling(nitrogen-fixing,ammonia-oxidizing,and denitrifying) microbial communities in 3 soil types(intact wetland:marsh soil;early degrading wetland:marsh meadow soil;and degraded wetland:meadow soil) using 454-pyrosequencing.The structure and relative abundance of nitrogen-cycling microbial communities differed in the 3 soil types.Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum in most soil samples but the most abundant soil nitrogenfixing and denitrifying microbial bacteria differed at the class,order,family,and genus levels among the 3soil types.At the genus level,the majority of nitrogenfixing bacterium sequences related to Bradyrhizobium were from marsh and marsh meadow soils;whereas those related to Geobacter originated from meadow soil.The majority of ammonia-oxidizing bacterium sequences related to Nitrosospira were from marsh(except for the 40-60 cm layer),marsh meadow and meadow soils;whereas those related to Candidatus Solibacter originated from 40-60 cm layer of marsh soil.The majority of denitrifying bacterium sequences related to Candidatus Solibacter and Anaeromyxobacter were from marsh and meadow soils;whereas those related to Herbaspirillum originated from meadow soil.The distribution of operational taxonomic units(OTUs)and species were correlated with soil type based upon Venn and Principal Coordinates Analysis(PCoA).Changes in soil type,caused by different water regimes were the most important factors influencing compositional changes in the nitrogen-fixing,ammonia-oxidizing,and denitrifying microbial communities.