Climate change is now evident in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau(QTP), with impacts on the alpine ecosystem, particularly on water and heat balance between the active layer and the atmosphere. Thus, we document the basic characteristics of changes in the water and heat dynamics in response to experimental warming in a typical alpine swamp meadow ecosystem. Data sets under open top chambers(OTC) and the control manipulations were collected over a complete year. The results show that annual(2008) air temperatures of OTC-1 and OTC-2 were 6.7 °C and 3.5 °C warmer than the control. Rising temperature promotes plant growth and development. The freeze-thaw and isothermal days of OTCs appeared more frequently than the control, owing to comparably higher water and better vegetation conditions. OTCs soil moisture decreased with the decrease of soil depth; however, there was an obviously middle dry aquifer of the control, which is familiar in QTP. Moreover, experimental warming led to an increase in topsoil water content due to poorly drained swamp meadow ecosystem with higher organic matter content and thicker root horizons. The results of this study will have some contributions to alpine cold ecosystem water-heat process and water cycle under climate change.
Alpine ecosystems in permafrost region are extremely sensitive to climate changes.To determine spatial pattern variations in alpine meadow and alpine steppe biomass dynamics in the permafrost region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,China,calibrated with historical datasets of above-ground biomass production within the permafrost region's two main ecosystems,an ecosystem-biomass model was developed by employing empirical spatialdistribution models of the study region's precipitation,air temperature and soil temperature.This model was then successfully used to simulate the spatio-temporal variations in annual alpine ecosystem biomass production under climate change.For a 0.44°C decade-1 rise in air temperature,the model predicted that the biomasses of alpine meadow and alpine steppe remained roughly the same if annual precipitation increased by 8 mm per decade-1,but the biomasses were decreased by 2.7% and 2.4%,respectively if precipitation was constant.For a 2.2°C decade-1 rise in air temperature coupled with a 12 mm decade-1 rise in precipitation,the model predicted that the biomass of alpine meadow was unchanged or slightly increased,while that of alpine steppe was increased by 5.2%.However,in the absence of any rise in precipitation,the model predicted 6.8% and 4.6% declines in alpine meadow and alpine steppe biomasses,respectively.The response of alpine steppe biomass to the rising air temperatures and precipitation was significantly lesser and greater,respectively than that of alpine meadow biomass.A better understanding of the difference in alpine ecosystem biomass production under climate change is greatly significant with respect to the influence of climate change on the carbon and water cycles in the permafrost regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
