TY - JOUR

T1 - Past, present, and future geo-biosphere interactions on the Tibetan Plateau and implications for permafrost

AU - Ehlers, Todd A.

AU - Chen, Deliang

AU - Appel, Erwin

AU - Bolch, Tobias

AU - Chen, Fahu

AU - Diekmann, Bernhard

AU - Dippold, Michaela A.

AU - Giese, Markus

AU - Guggenberger, Georg

AU - Lai, Hui Wen

AU - Li, Xin

AU - Liu, Junguo

AU - Liu, Yongqin

AU - Ma, Yaoming

AU - Miehe, Georg

AU - Mosbrugger, Volker

AU - Mulch, Andreas

AU - Piao, Shilong

AU - Schwalb, Antje

AU - Thompson, Lonnie G.

AU - Su, Zhongbo

AU - Sun, Hang

AU - Yao, Tandong

AU - Yang, Xiaoxin

AU - Yang, Kun

AU - Zhu, Liping

N1 - Funding Information: This manuscript resulted from a Workshop in 2019 at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt , Germany, supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA20100300 ). J. Liu also thanks the support of the Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Hydrosphere and Watershed Water Security . T. Ehlers thanks the California Institute of Technology Moore Distinguished Scholar Program for support in completing this manuscript during a sabbatical. J. Liu and T. Bolch thank the support from the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grants no. XDA20060402 , XDA20100300 ). We thank the German Science Foundation (DFG) for support of the TiP (Tibetan Plateau: Formation-Climate-Ecoystems) priority research program ( SPP-1372 ) for initiating the collaborations that led to this manuscript. We thank R. Wasmund for logistical assistance in preparing this manuscript. Www.vecteezy.com provided clip art used in Fig. 9 . Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that improved the manuscript.

PY - 2022/11

Y1 - 2022/11

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Degradation

KW - Ecology

KW - Global change

KW - Management

KW - Permafrost

KW - Tibetan Plateau

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140025665&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104197

DO - 10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104197

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:85140025665

VL - 234

JO - Earth-Science Reviews

JF - Earth-Science Reviews

SN - 0012-8252

M1 - 104197

ER -