The impacts of climate change and human activities on biogeochemical cycles on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

• Published in: Global Change Biology
• Main Authors: Chen, Huai, Zhu, Qiuan, Peng, Changhui, Wu, Ning, Wang, Yanfen, Fang, Xiuqing, Gao, Yongheng, Zhu, Dan, Yang, Gang, Tian, Jianqing, Kang, Xiaoming, Piao, Shilong, Ouyang, Hua, Xiang, Wenhua, Luo, Zhibin, Jiang, Hong, Song, Xingzhang, Zhang, Yao, Yu, Guirui, Zhao, Xinquan, Gong, Peng, Yao, Tandong, Wu, Jianghua
• Other Authors: Peng, CH (reprint author), Northwest Agr & Forest Univ, Lab Ecol Forecasting & Global Change, Coll Forestry, Yangling 712100, Peoples R China., Chinese Acad Sci, Chengdu Inst Biol, Chengdu 610041, Peoples R China., Northwest Agr & Forest Univ, Lab Ecol Forecasting & Global Change, Coll Forestry, Yangling 712100, Peoples R China., Chinese Acad Sci, Zoige Peatland & Global Change Res Stn, Hongyuan 624400, Peoples R China., Univ Quebec, Inst Environm Sci, Dept Biol Sci, Montreal, PQ C3H 3P8, Canada., Int Ctr Integrated Mt Dev, Kathmandu, Nepal., Chinese Acad Sci, Grad Univ, Beijing 100039, Peoples R China., Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Mt Hazards & Environm, Chengdu 610041, Peoples R China., Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Microbiol, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China., Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Tibetan Plateau Res, Beijing 100085, Peoples R China., Peking Univ, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China., Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Geog Sci & Nat Resources Res, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China., Cent South Univ Forestry & Technol, Res Sect Forest Ecol, Changsha 410004, Hunan, Peoples R China., Zhejiang Agr & Forestry Univ, Zhejiang Prov Key Lab Carbon Cycling & Carbon Seq, Linan 311300, Peoples R China., Chinese Acad Sci, Northwest Inst Plateau Biol, Xining 810008, Peoples R China., Tsinghua Univ, Ctr Earth Syst Sci, Beijing 100084, Peoples R China., Mem Univ Newfoundland, Corner Brook, NF A2H 5G4, Canada.
• Format: Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 全球变化生物学 2013
• Subjects: carbon budget; ice retreat; intact ecosystems; land use change; permafrost; ECOSYSTEM CO2 EXCHANGE; DELAYED SPRING PHENOLOGY; ALPINE MEADOW ECOSYSTEM; PERMAFROST DEGRADATION; METHANE EMISSIONS; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; GRAZING INTENSITY; PLANT-COMMUNITIES; THERMOKARST LAKES; SOIL RESPIRATION; Ice; Thermokarst
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/220658; https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12277

With a pace of about twice the observed rate of global warming, the temperature on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (Earth's third pole') has increased by 0.2 degrees C per decade over the past 50years, which results in significant permafrost thawing and glacier retreat. Our review suggested that warming enhanced net primary production and soil respiration, decreased methane (CH4) emissions from wetlands and increased CH4 consumption of meadows, but might increase CH4 emissions from lakes. Warming-induced permafrost thawing and glaciers melting would also result in substantial emission of old carbon dioxide (CO2) and CH4. Nitrous oxide (N2O) emission was not stimulated by warming itself, but might be slightly enhanced by wetting. However, there are many uncertainties in such biogeochemical cycles under climate change. Human activities (e.g. grazing, land cover changes) further modified the biogeochemical cycles and amplified such uncertainties on the plateau. If the projected warming and wetting continues, the future biogeochemical cycles will be more complicated. So facing research in this field is an ongoing challenge of integrating field observations with process-based ecosystem models to predict the impacts of future climate change and human activities at various temporal and spatial scales. To reduce the uncertainties and to improve the precision of the predictions of the impacts of climate change and human activities on biogeochemical cycles, efforts should focus on conducting more field observation studies, integrating data within improved models, and developing new knowledge about coupling among carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus biogeochemical cycles as well as about the role of microbes in these cycles. Biodiversity Conservation Ecology Environmental Sciences SCI(E) 12 REVIEW 10 2940-2955 19