Impacts of land-use and climate change on ecosystem service in Eastern Tibetan Plateau, China

Abstract

Past years have witnessed the transformation of land use at a high frequency and a warmer and drier climate in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau region. To fully understand the spatial-temporal variation of ecosystem services against the changing global backdrop and to provide scientific ecosystem management measures for decision-making, a study was conducted to investigate the major ecosystem services: water yield, soil conservation and crop production from 1990 to 2015 in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau region. Three scenarios—climate change only, land use change only and both land use and climate change—were included in this study to analyze the response of ES to the above-mentioned global changes. The climate change into account when making decisions, continue with desertification control and improve the quality of grassland as well as forests—these efforts should enable us to achieve sustainable development of human beings and the natural ecosystem.