The Kobresia pygmaea ecosystem of the Tibetan highlands – Origin, functioning and degradation of the world's largest pastoral alpine ecosystem: Kobresia pastures of Tibet
Creators: name: Miehe, Georg
name: Schleuss, Per-Marten
name: Seeber, Elke
name: Babel, Wolfgang
name: Biermann, Tobias
name: Braendle, Mmartin
name: Chen, Fahu
name: Guggenberger, Georg
Publisher: name: Amsterdam : Elsevier B.V.
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Alpine meadow
subject: Alpine plant ecology
subject: Carbon cycle and sequestration
subject: Carex parvula
subject: Grazing ecology
subject: Hydrological cycle
subject: Nutrient cycles
subject: Paleo-environment
subject: Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
subject: Rangeland management
subject: Climate change
subject: Deterioration
subject: Ecosystems
subject: Mammals
subject: Nutrients
subject: Soils
subject: Carbon cycles
subject: Hydrological cycles
subject: Nutrient cycle
subject: Plant ecology
subject: Qinghai Tibet plateau
subject: Agriculture
subject: rain
subject: alpine environment
subject: ecosystem function
subject: ecosystem management
subject: environmental degradation
subject: grazing
subject: growth
subject: hydrological cycle
subject: land management
subject: meadow
subject: nutrient dynamics
subject: paleoenvironment
subject: pasture
subject: rangeland
subject: vegetation cover
subject: vulnerability
subject: climate change
subject: Cyperaceae
subject: ecosystem
subject: genetic variability
subject: human
subject: human impact (environment)
subject: Kobresia pygmaea
subject: life history
subject: nonhuman
subject: nutrient cycle
subject: plant ecology
subject: priority journal
subject: Review
subject: seed production
subject: soil degradation
subject: soil erosion
subject: species distribution
subject: species diversity
subject: surface area
subject: Tibet
subject: vegetation
subject: water cycle
subject: weather
subject: China
subject: Qinghai-Xizang Plateau
subject: Xizang
subject: Carex
subject: Kobresia
subject: Mammalia
subject: Dewey Decimal Classification::300 | Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie::330 | Wirtschaft::333 | Boden- und Energiewirtschaft::333,7 | Natürliche Ressourcen, Energie und Umwelt

description: With 450,000 km2 Kobresia (syn. Carex) pygmaea dominated pastures in the eastern Tibetan highlands are the world's largest pastoral alpine ecosystem forming a durable turf cover at 3000–6000 m a.s.l. Kobresia's resilience and competitiveness is based on dwarf habit, predominantly below-ground allocation of photo assimilates, mixture of seed production and clonal growth, and high genetic diversity. Kobresia growth is co-limited by livestock-mediated nutrient withdrawal and, in the drier parts of the plateau, low rainfall during the short and cold growing season. Overstocking has caused pasture degradation and soil deterioration over most parts of the Tibetan highlands and is the basis for this man-made ecosystem. Natural autocyclic processes of turf destruction and soil erosion are initiated through polygonal turf cover cracking, and accelerated by soil-dwelling endemic small mammals in the absence of predators. The major consequences of vegetation cover deterioration include the release of large amounts of C, earlier diurnal formation of clouds, and decreased surface temperatures. These effects decrease the recovery potential of Kobresia pastures and make them more vulnerable to anthropogenic pressure and climate change. Traditional migratory rangeland management was sustainable over millennia, and possibly still offers the best strategy to conserve and possibly increase C stocks in the Kobresia turf. © 2018