中文

Chinese Journal of Nature ›› 2017, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (3): 173-178.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2017.03.003

• Review Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Greening of the Tibetan Plateau and its drivers since 2000

ZHANG Yili①②, LI Lanhui①②, DING Mingjun③, ZHENG Du①   

  1. ①Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China; ②University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; ③Key Lab of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, Ministry of Education, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China
  • Received:2017-03-30 Online:2017-06-24 Published:2017-06-27

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Abstract:

The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as an important carrier of ecological shelter in China, even in Asia, has attracted a great of attentions because its ecosystem was very sensitive to global changes. Based on the results of previous studies and the analysis of relevant data, this study aimed to identify the temporal-spatial pattern of the alpine vegetation change and its drivers based on the perspective of climate change and human activities on the TP from 2000 to 2013. The results showed that the coverage of alpine vegetation has slightly increased by 3%-5% on TP since 2000. The vegetation coverage of about 98.34×104 km2 increased, with a significant increase in 16.85×104 km2, distributed mainly on the central and eastern part of the TP. The vegetation coverage of about 5.73×104 km2 decreased, with a significant decrease in 0.18×104 km2, mainly on the central and western part of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Climate warming and moistening and ecological construction are the main factors for the greening of alpine vegetation. However, the role of the increase of human activity intensity and climate warming and drying on vegetation degradation in local area should not be neglected.