Changes in rangeland cover associated with livestock grazing in Altun National Nature Reserve, northwest Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

The Altun National Nature Reserve, located on the northern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of China, is one of 35 most important biodiversity sites worldwide. Land-use and cover change are affecting this alpine ecosystem. A supervised classification was used to classify types containing meadow, steppe, sparse rangeland, and non-rangeland environments based on Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery data. By conducting an aggregation analysis using a Geographic Information System an analysis of changes from 1990 to 2010 was conducted. The results demonstrated that sparse rangeland was the most widespread vegetation type and underwent significant changes over the period. The area of sparse rangeland increased by 64.4 km2 from 1990 to 1995 and by 49.3 km2 from 1995 to 2000. However, the area of sparse rangeland decreased by 99.2 km2 from 2000 to 2005 and by 247.4 km2 from 2005 to 2010. The major areas of change were primarily located in the vicinities of the Yishakipati central inspection station, the Kardun inspection station, and Ayakkum, Aqqikkol and Jingyu Lakes. There was a positive correlation between the change in area of sparse rangeland and the amount of livestock grazing. The change in non-rangeland was significantly negatively correlated with the amount of livestock grazing during the period in the grazing area. Appropriate livestock grazing may be essential for promoting the resilience of the predominant ecosystems and key habitats of wildlife in the Altun National Nature Reserve.

Enhancing the resilience of coupled human and natural systems of alpine rangelands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

“…We addressed the following questions: (1) what are the environmental and socio-economic drivers of rangeland degradation Wang et al 2015a;Wu et al 2015a); (2) how do social and natural pastoral systems respond to environmental changes Zhao et al 2015;Liu et al 2015;Wu et al 2015b); (3) what adaptive strategies are being used by local people to cope with global changes Wu et al 2015b); (4) how can scientific knowledge be translated into practical applications of sustainable rangeland management (Wang et al 2015b;Tang et al 2015;Li et al 2015); and (5) how can effective government policies of rangeland management be formulated within a framework of coupled social and natural systems Wu et al 2015b;Su et al 2015)? The papers presented in this special edition address these questions by examining diverse topics about alpine rangelands of the QTP across multiple spatial scales (site, watershed and region) and multiple disciplines (social, ecological, economic, cultural and political) within the context of coupled human-natural systems (Fig.…”

Mitigating the impacts of fragmented land tenure through community-based institutional innovations: two case study villages from Guinan County of Qinghai Province, China

“…Community use of rangelands under GQS maintains a flexible pattern of seasonal livestock mobility between the three seasonal pastures, located at different elevations, and greater mobility within seasonal, common pastures. Together, these help to alleviate grazing pressures including livestock trampling effects on rangeland plants and soil (Su et al 2015, Cao et al 2017, 2018, Zhuang et al 2019, which explains the better vegetation composition and soil properties under GQS in our study. We believe that the GQS clarifies herder grazing rights in a way that maintains community collective use of rangelands, preventing fragmentation of rangeland management and maintaining herd access to unevenly distributed heterogenous rangeland resources.…”

Understanding ecosystem functions in grasslands under climate change for sustainable development of the Inner Mongolian Plateau

“…Climate change, overgrazing and other factors have all contributed to degradation in different parts of Inner Mongolia and on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (Wu et al 2014;Wang et al 2015a). Management of livestock grazing is an ancillary theme in these two Special Issues (Wang et al 2014a;Zhang et al 2014;Su et al 2015;Zhang et al 2015) reflecting the importance of sound management for vegetation recovery and preventing future degradation.…”