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  • Review Article
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Grassland changes and adaptive management on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 3, pages 668–683 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Grasslands on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP) foster biodiversity, store carbon, maintain productivity and support pastoral livelihoods. These systems are being altered by climate change and anthropogenic activities, but the relative importance of these drivers are still debated. This Review examines QTP grassland changes since the 1980s and discusses the impacts of global change on plant communities and soil properties. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (which can be used to track vegetation greenness) has generally increased since the 1980s, but with substantial spatial variability and some local decreases. Rising temperatures were key in driving the NDVI increases, but also likely exacerbated water deficiency in areas with little precipitation (<100 mm year–1), accounting for some of the spatial variability in trends. Intense livestock grazing negatively affects vegetation and soil when stocking rates are higher than grassland carrying capacity, causing grassland degradation. Degraded grassland can be effectively restored by management policies that minimize or exclude grazing and by adaptive management; these practices became important drivers of net primary production increases after 2000. However, better management of grasslands under a future of increasing temperatures and settlement requires a deeper understanding of the large-scale plant species composition shifts and the combined effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities.

Key points

  • Grasslands on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP) account for 54–70% of the total area of the QTP.

  • The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of grasslands increased at a rate of ~0.0008 year–1 during 1981–2000, decreased at ~0.0010 year–1 during 2000–2015 and increased again at ~0.0053 year–1 during 2015–2020.

  • Climate drove spatial variability of NDVI changes during 2000–2015 as NDVI decline was ameliorated by high July temperature with precipitation >100 mm, but exacerbated by lower precipitation.

  • There were climate-influenced increases in soil temperature over 1983–2013, in soil carbon stock over 2002–2011 and in soil nutrients over the 1980s–2010s.

  • Precipitation, temperature and grazing have the largest impacts on above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP).

  • The relative contributions of climate change and anthropogenic activities to grassland changes vary across spatio-temporal scales.

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Fig. 1: Drivers of alpine grassland changes on the QTP.
Fig. 2: Experimental warming across climate gradients.
Fig. 3: NDVI changes across the QTP.
Fig. 4: Influences of climate-related factors on soil properties and plant communities.
Fig. 5: Influences of anthropogenic activities on soil properties and plant communities.
Fig. 6: Direct and indirect effects of different factors on ANPP based on manipulation studies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors were supported by the following funding: National Natural Science Foundation of China (41731175), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (2019QZKK0304), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41988101), the Strategic Priority Research Program A of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA20050101), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770524, 31872994 and 42041005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yanfen Wang, Wangwang Lv, Shiping Wang, Lirong Zhang, Lili Jiang, Jianping Sun, Tsechoe Dorji, Shilong Piao, Bowen Li, Peipei Liu, Yang Zhou & A Wang

  2. College of Resources and Environment, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yanfen Wang, Wangwang Lv, Kai Xue, Ronghai Hu, Hong Zeng, Jianqing Du, Jianping Sun, Bowen Li, Peipei Liu, Yang Zhou, A Wang & Haishan Niu

  3. Department of Resources and Environment, Hebei Normal University for Nationalities, Chengde, China

    Lirong Zhang & Xianzhou Zhang

  4. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling, Institute of Geography Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xingliang Xu & Shikui Dong

  5. College of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China

    Yaoming Li

  6. College of Life Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yanbin Hao

  7. College of Grassland Science, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, China

    Changhui Wang

  8. Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, China

    Caiyun Luo, Zhenhua Zhang, Huakun Zhou & Xinquan Zhao

  9. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China

    Xiaofeng Chang

  10. Team of Strategy and Policy on Rural Biomass Energy and Living Environments Development, Biogas Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Chengdu, China

    Mingming Zhang

  11. Cryosphere Research Station on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China

    Yigang Hu & Tonghua Wu

  12. Wetland Institute, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China

    Jinzhi Wang

  13. Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agriculture Science, Beijing, China

    Qingzhu Gao

  14. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Miaogen Shen

  15. Values for Development Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, UK

    Andreas Wilkes

  16. Faculty of Geography, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Georg Miehe

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Contributions

Y.W. and S.W formulated the Review. W.L., K.X., L.Z., R.H., H.N., H.Z. and J.S. performed the analyses and drafted the figures. Y.W., W.L., S.W., K.X., L.Z., R.H., H.N., X.X., Y.L., L.J., C.W., M.Z., W.A, T.W., A.W. and X.Z. wrote the first draft. Y.W., S.W., K.X., R.H., H.N., X.X., Y.L., J.D., L.J., S.P., S.D., X.Z., Q.G., A.W., G.M., Y. Hao, Y. Hu, T.D., C.L., Z.Z., X.C., J.W., B.L., P.L., Y.Z., H.Z., M.S. and X.Z. reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors contributed to the discussion of content.

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Correspondence to Shiping Wang.

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Nature Reviews Earth & Environment thanks Xuyang Lu, Shuli Niu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Wang, Y., Lv, W., Xue, K. et al. Grassland changes and adaptive management on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. Nat Rev Earth Environ 3, 668–683 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00330-8

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