Effect of permafrost degradation on grassland net primary productivity in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
Abstract Climate warming poses complex challenges for alpine ecosystems on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP), further exacerbated by permafrost degradation. Quantifying the specific ecological impacts of permafrost thaw remains elusive, as ecological variations are also influenced by external climat...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e/pdf |
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crioppubl:10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e 2024-09-30T14:41:04+00:00 Effect of permafrost degradation on grassland net primary productivity in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Hu, Jianan Nan, Zhuotong Ji, Hailong Zhao, Shuping Ou, Minyue National Natural Science Foundation of China National Key Research and Development Program of China 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e/pdf unknown IOP Publishing https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/text-and-data-mining Environmental Research Letters volume 19, issue 10, page 104051 ISSN 1748-9326 journal-article 2024 crioppubl https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e 2024-09-17T04:18:35Z Abstract Climate warming poses complex challenges for alpine ecosystems on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP), further exacerbated by permafrost degradation. Quantifying the specific ecological impacts of permafrost thaw remains elusive, as ecological variations are also influenced by external climate factors. This study tackles this gap by employing the Noah-MP model to simultaneously simulate permafrost thermal–hydrological dynamics and net primary production (NPP) across the Three River Headwaters Region from 1989 to 2018. Model results were validated against observations. To isolate the ecological effects of permafrost thaw, we implemented a novel relative time transformation on the simulation results. Our analysis reveals a 7.5 × 10 4 km 2 reduction in permafrost coverage during the study period, coinciding with a 1.09 g C m −2 yr −2 increase in NPP. While precipitation is the primary driver of NPP changes in most years, soil moisture emerges as a crucial factor during permafrost disappearance, when the ground transitions to seasonally frozen ground. Surprisingly, the NPP response to permafrost disappearance exhibited a transient effect, diminishing to negligible levels within five years post-thaw. These findings enhance our understanding of the intricate and dynamic responses of the QTP ecosystem to permafrost degradation under a warming climate. Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost IOP Publishing Environmental Research Letters 19 10 104051 |
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Abstract Climate warming poses complex challenges for alpine ecosystems on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP), further exacerbated by permafrost degradation. Quantifying the specific ecological impacts of permafrost thaw remains elusive, as ecological variations are also influenced by external climate factors. This study tackles this gap by employing the Noah-MP model to simultaneously simulate permafrost thermal–hydrological dynamics and net primary production (NPP) across the Three River Headwaters Region from 1989 to 2018. Model results were validated against observations. To isolate the ecological effects of permafrost thaw, we implemented a novel relative time transformation on the simulation results. Our analysis reveals a 7.5 × 10 4 km 2 reduction in permafrost coverage during the study period, coinciding with a 1.09 g C m −2 yr −2 increase in NPP. While precipitation is the primary driver of NPP changes in most years, soil moisture emerges as a crucial factor during permafrost disappearance, when the ground transitions to seasonally frozen ground. Surprisingly, the NPP response to permafrost disappearance exhibited a transient effect, diminishing to negligible levels within five years post-thaw. These findings enhance our understanding of the intricate and dynamic responses of the QTP ecosystem to permafrost degradation under a warming climate. |
author2 |
National Natural Science Foundation of China National Key Research and Development Program of China |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hu, Jianan Nan, Zhuotong Ji, Hailong Zhao, Shuping Ou, Minyue |
spellingShingle |
Hu, Jianan Nan, Zhuotong Ji, Hailong Zhao, Shuping Ou, Minyue Effect of permafrost degradation on grassland net primary productivity in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
author_facet |
Hu, Jianan Nan, Zhuotong Ji, Hailong Zhao, Shuping Ou, Minyue |
author_sort |
Hu, Jianan |
title |
Effect of permafrost degradation on grassland net primary productivity in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
title_short |
Effect of permafrost degradation on grassland net primary productivity in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
title_full |
Effect of permafrost degradation on grassland net primary productivity in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
title_fullStr |
Effect of permafrost degradation on grassland net primary productivity in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effect of permafrost degradation on grassland net primary productivity in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau |
title_sort |
effect of permafrost degradation on grassland net primary productivity in qinghai–tibet plateau |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e/pdf |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters volume 19, issue 10, page 104051 ISSN 1748-9326 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/text-and-data-mining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad751e |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
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19 |
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10 |
container_start_page |
104051 |
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1811643495439400960 |