Past, present, and future geo-biosphere interactions on the Tibetan Plateau and implications for permafrost

authored by

Todd A. Ehlers, Deliang Chen, Erwin Appel, Tobias Bolch, Fahu Chen, Bernhard Diekmann, Michaela A. Dippold, Markus Giese, Georg Guggenberger, Hui Wen Lai, Xin Li, Junguo Liu, Yongqin Liu, Yaoming Ma, Georg Miehe, Volker Mosbrugger, Andreas Mulch, Shilong Piao, Antje Schwalb, Lonnie G. Thompson, Zhongbo Su, Hang Sun, Tandong Yao, Xiaoxin Yang, Kun Yang, Liping Zhu

Abstract

Interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere are most active in the critical zone, a region extending from the tops of trees to the top of unweathered bedrock. Changes in one or more of these spheres can result in a cascade of changes throughout the system in ways that are often poorly understood. Here we investigate how past and present climate change have impacted permafrost, hydrology, and ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau. We do this by compiling existing climate, hydrologic, cryosphere, biosphere, and geologic studies documenting change over decadal to glacial-interglacial timescales and longer. Our emphasis is on showing present-day trends in environmental change and how plateau ecosystems have largely flourished under warmer and wetter periods in the geologic past. We identify two future pathways that could lead to either a favorable greening or unfavorable degradation and desiccation of plateau ecosystems. Both paths are plausible given the available evidence. We contend that the key to which pathway future generations experience lies in what, if any, human intervention measures are implemented. We conclude with suggested management strategies that can be implemented to facilitate a future greening of the Tibetan Plateau.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Soil Science
Section Soil Chemistry

External Organisation(s)

University of Tübingen
University of Gothenburg
University of St. Andrews
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
South University of Science and Technology of China
Lanzhou University
University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS)
Philipps-Universität Marburg
Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden
LOEWE Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre
Goethe University Frankfurt
Peking University
Technische Universität Braunschweig
The Ohio State University
International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation - ITC
Kunming Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tsinghua University

Type

Review article

Journal

Earth-Science Reviews

Volume

234

ISSN

0012-8252

Publication date

11.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Earth and Planetary Sciences

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 13 - Climate Action

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104197 (Access: Open)