Editorial: Patterns, functions, and processes of alpine grassland ecosystems under global change

Abstract

Editorial on the Research Topic:Patterns, functions, and processes of alpine grassland ecosystems under global change Alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) accounts for about 62% of the total area of the TP (Wang et al., 2022). These grassland ecosystems provide important ecological services and functions in pastoral production, biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, water resource regulation, cultural inheritance, tourism, and recreation etc. (Miehe et al., 2019; Sun et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2022). In the past serval decades, the alpine grassland on the TP has experienced rapid climate change and intensified human activities (He et al., 2021), the regulatory mechanisms and drivers are remained controversial.Climate changes have been evident across the TP since the beginning of the 1970s (Yang et al., 2014). For instance, the mean annual air temperature has increased by about 0.4°C, which is twice that of the global average, however, a decrease in precipitation has been found in many other regions (Mountain Research Initiative EDW Working Group, 2015). Also, the degradation of permafrost has been accelerated as manifested by ground surface subsidence and thaw settlement of permafrost soils (Mu et al., 2020), and the total number of lakes increased from 868 in 1990 to 1207 in 2015, leading to the increase of total water surface area of the lakes at a rate of 383.5 km2 yr-1 (Sun et al., 2018). With the steady increase of human population and domestic livestock number (Wei et al., 2020), overgrazing has become a serious challenge with overstocking rates of 27-89% in the Frontiers in Plant Science frontiersin.org 01

Divergent seasonal responses of above- and below-ground to environmental factors in alpine grassland

“…Relationships between aboveground productivity or phenology and temperature and precipitation have been discussed in grassland ecosystems ( Wu et al., 2013 ; Ren and Peichl, 2021 ; Shao et al., 2022 ), which indicates the changing trend of grassland under climate change ( Sun et al., 2022 ). Evidence for this has been found from the local ( Zhang et al., 2019 ) to the landscape scales ( Chen et al., 2020 ), with methods ranging from single-shot observation ( Chen et al., 2015 ) to remote sensing ( Doussoulin-Guzmán et al., 2022 ).…”

Distinct responses of soil bacterial communities to N and P fertilization in a Tibetan alpine meadow of China

“…Alpine meadows are widely distributed on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau, occupying approximately 30% of the plateau area (Shen et al, 2019). These grassland ecosystems provide important ecological services and functions for the livelihood of native nomads and for biodiversity conservation (Sun et al, 2022). Grassland degradation is currently a major threat to the maintenance of ecological services and functions (Sun et al, 2022).…”

“…These grassland ecosystems provide important ecological services and functions for the livelihood of native nomads and for biodiversity conservation (Sun et al, 2022). Grassland degradation is currently a major threat to the maintenance of ecological services and functions (Sun et al, 2022). In addition, the Tibetan alpine meadow is regarded as an N‐ and P‐limited ecosystem that is potentially susceptible to N deposition and P fertilization (Ma et al, 2019; Zhao & Zhou, 1999).…”