Can Clean Energy Policy Improve the Quality of Alpine Grassland Ecosystem? A Scenario Analysis to Influence the Energy Changes in the Three-River Headwater Region, China

Zhang, Yongxun; Min, Qingwen; Guigen, Zhao; Jiao, Wenjun; Liu, Weiwei; Bijaya, G C Dhruba

doi:10.3390/su8030231

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…China has experienced rapid urbanization over the past decades, which has been accompanied by rapid changes in land use patterns that have affected regional ESs [18,19]. On the one hand, these changes have led to a series of ecological problems [18,20], such as soil erosion [21], reduced carbon storage and water yield [22], deteriorating water quality [23], and the destruction of biodiversity [24]. These ecological problems threaten the sustainable development of urban areas and endanger the health of urban ecosystems [20,25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-Temporal Change of Multiple Ecosystem Services and Their Driving Factors: A Case Study in Beijing, China

Liu

Xiao

et al. 2022

Forests

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Driven by rapid urbanization, land use patterns have undergone dramatic changes, which have in turn influenced ecosystem services (ESs). The government has implemented ecological compensation and conservation actions to mitigate this negative impact, especially in metropolises. However, whether these measures will have the desired effect remains unclear. Therefore, understanding the spatio-temporal characteristics of ESs and their driving factors are crucial for regional development. In this study, we quantified carbon storage, water yield and soil conservation services based on land use maps. A Geographical Detector (GD) was used to analyze the driving mechanisms of ES changes in Beijing from 1985 to 2020. The results showed that (1) the obvious landscape pattern changes are urbanization, afforestation and cultivated land degradation in Beijing, (2) the three services showed an increasing trend overall, but the changes were different in each period, (3) in general, land use change is the main factor affecting ESs, and the urbanization and afforestation contributed the most. These results suggest that in highly urbanized metropolises, humans can still balance the demands of regional development and ESs reasonable planning. This study highlights the importance of afforestation for ESs, the necessity of harmonizing environmental concerns and human activities, and the need to conduct ecological management in Beijing to protect the ecological environment and coordinate regional development.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-Temporal Change of Multiple Ecosystem Services and Their Driving Factors: A Case Study in Beijing, China

Liu

Xiao

et al. 2022

Forests

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“…Decrease in the usage of yak dung could reduce herdsmen's dependence on yak, and thus help to decrease yak number and to improve the rangeland status. Zhang [26] found that decreases in carbon emission from yak dung due to the decreased number of livestock had improved the rangeland ecosystem and the rangeland status. This is consistent with the findings of a statistically significant relationship between livestock number and the rangeland NDVI in our study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the Effects of Government Policy and Drought from 1984 to 2009 on Rangeland in the Three Rivers Source Region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Ning

Liang

et al. 2017

Sustainability

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Abstract:The Three Rivers Source Region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a key area that has extensive impacts on much of the population and economy of China as well as several Southeast Asian countries. The rangeland in this area has undergone degradation, the driving factors of which have been extensively investigated in previous studies. However, the effect of policy on rangeland was not analyzed by subdividing the study period according to the timing of the rangeland policies. The role of dry conditions during the process of degradation has not been studied. Therefore, the period from 1984 to 2009 was subdivided into five periods according to the timing of the relevant government policies based on long-term field investigation. The mean annual normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and its relationship to dry conditions, policy, temperature, precipitation, and moisture index were analyzed for the five periods. According to our analysis, dry conditions mainly occurred in non-vegetation-growing months, and they did not affect the status of the rangeland. The privatization of rangeland and livestock caused the number of livestock to increase, resulting in a decrease in the mean annual NDVI from 1984 to 1993. The policies of "Green-to-Grain" and eco-migration caused livestock numbers to decrease and the NDVI to increase after 1994. Physical factors such as temperature, precipitation, and moisture also affected the status of the rangeland. Increased temperature had positive effects on rangeland in most areas, but its effect was offset by increased numbers of livestock from 1984 to 1993. Precipitation had positive effects only in drier areas in which the precipitation in the vegetation-growing months was less than 400 mm. In general, the policies of "Green-to-Grain" and eco-migration improved the status of rangeland, and helped improve sustainable use of the rangeland. The methods used in this study could be applied to other case studies of rangeland. Governments should continue to implement compensation policies to maintain the improved condition of rangeland in the area and expand those policies to other rangeland areas.

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“…The model has been used widely in more than 20 countries to obtain accurate calibration and verification results in various ecosystems (Abdalla et al, 2009;Chen et al, 2015;Li et al, 1996Li et al, , 2017Xu et al, 2003;Kariyapperuma et al, 2011;Zhao et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2006;Zhang and Niu, 2016).…”

Section: Dndc Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling impacts of climate change and grazing effects on plant biomass and soil organic carbon in the Qinghai–Tibetan grasslands

Zhang

et al. 2017

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. The Qinghai Province supports over 40 % of the human population of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) but occupies about 29 % of its land area, and thus it plays an important role in the plateau. 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 used to validate the simulated results. The simulated above-ground biomass and SOC concentrations were in good agreement with the measured data (R 2 0.71 and 0.73 for above-ground biomass and SOC, respectively). The results showed that climate change may be the major factor that leads to fluctuations in the grassland biomass and SOC, and it explained 26.4 and 47.7 % of biomass and SOC variation, respectively. Meanwhile, the grazing intensity explained 6.4 and 2.3 % variation in biomass and SOC, respectively. The project average biomass and SOC between 2015 and 2044 was significantly smaller than past 30 years , and it was 191.17 g C m −2 , 63.44 g C kg −1 and 183.62 g C m −2 , 63.37 g C kg −1 for biomass and SOC under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively. The RCP8.5 showed the more negative effect on the biomass and SOC compared with RCP4.5. Grazing intensity had a negative relationship with biomass and positive relationship with SOC. Compared with the baseline, the biomass and SOC changed by 12.56 and −0.19 % for G 0 , 7.23 and 0.23 for G −50 , and −5.17 and 1.19 % for G +50 . In the future, more human activity and management practices should be coupled into the model simulation.

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Can Clean Energy Policy Improve the Quality of Alpine Grassland Ecosystem? A Scenario Analysis to Influence the Energy Changes in the Three-River Headwater Region, China

Cited by 9 publications

References 31 publications

Spatio-Temporal Change of Multiple Ecosystem Services and Their Driving Factors: A Case Study in Beijing, China

Spatio-Temporal Change of Multiple Ecosystem Services and Their Driving Factors: A Case Study in Beijing, China

Evaluating the Effects of Government Policy and Drought from 1984 to 2009 on Rangeland in the Three Rivers Source Region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Modeling impacts of climate change and grazing effects on plant biomass and soil organic carbon in the Qinghai–Tibetan grasslands

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