Environmental conditions are the dominant factor influencing stability of terrestrial ecosystems on the Tibetan plateau

Abstract

Ecosystem stability is essential for the sustainable provision of diverse ecosystem services. However, the factors that maintain ecosystem stability and their relative importance on the Tibetan Plateau, a region sensitive to climate change, remain unclear. Here, we combined data from ground-based biodiversity surveys at 143 sites from 2019 to 2021 with the temporal stability of ecosystems derived from remote sensing data from 2000 to 2020 to disentangle mechanisms of diversity–stability relationships. We further quantified the impact of biodiversity (taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity) and environmental context (spatial location, climate, and soil conditions) on temporal stability. Our results show that the stability of a typical ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau is mainly regulated by environmental factors, and the environmental context can directly affect the stability of the ecosystem rather than indirectly through biodiversity. These findings are critical for adaptation measures and prioritizing conservation areas for future climate change scenarios.

Spatio-Temporal Changes of Vegetation Net Primary Productivity and Its Driving Factors on the Tibetan Plateau from 1979 to 2018

“…The NPP of grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau is expected to increase due to the combined effects of meteorological and non-meteorological factors. In terms of stability, precipitation and temperature variability have a greater impact on the stability of alpine meadows, while temperature variability does not significantly affect grassland stability [76]. It is predicted that the vulnerability of alpine meadows to climate change in the west-central Tibetan Plateau will decrease in the future [77].…”

A unified framework for partitioning the drivers of stability of ecological communities

“…A consensus exists on the two main drivers of such community stability: (1) the stability of the species populations (particularly dominants, see next paragraph) composing the community and (2) the compensatory dynamics, originating from the temporal compensations between species due to their asynchronous fluctuations (Gonzalez & Loreau, 2009; Hector et al., 2010). Each of these components has been associated with specific ecological hypotheses: while the stability of species populations should mainly relate to the interplay between their ecological strategies and environmental conditions (Conti et al., 2023; Májeková et al., 2014; Ren et al., 2023), compensatory dynamics have been primarily associated with ecological mechanisms such as species interactions (positive or negative), niche differentiation or demographic stochasticity (de Bello et al., 2021; de Mazancourt et al., 2013; Loreau & de Mazancourt, 2008).…”

Construction and Analysis of Multi-Species Ecological Network, a Case Study of the Southeast Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

“…The southeastern part of the QTP (QTP) is a region highly sensitive to climate change and is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot in mountainous areas in southwest China [33]. However, human activities have led to habitat fragmentation, posing a threat to the re-gion's rich flora and fauna [34,35]. To address this issue, a study is being conducted in the southeastern QTP to construct a MEN and analyze the habitat connections among multiple populations and individual species.…”