1Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
2College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, China
*Corresponding author e-mail: yhgao@imde.ac.cn
Online published on 28 February, 2018.
The effects of a change in the precipitation amount on greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission from the alpine grassland ecosystem have not yet to be elucidated. In this research, the GHGs (CO2, CH4 and N2O) fluxes in the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau were measured with an artificially increased precipitation (increase of 200 mm) and a decreased precipitation (decrease of 200 mm) by using the static chamber meteorological chromatography method in a growing season (from May to September). Under both increased precipitation (IP) and decreased precipitation (DP) experimental treatments, the alpine grassland functioned as the source of CO2 and N2O and as the CH4 sink. Compared to the control check (CK), the IP slightly enhanced the average CO2 and N2O emission fluxes by 4.2% (P>0.05) and 17.2% (P>0.05), respectively, but it declined the average CH4 absorption flux by 21.9% (P<0.05). In contrast, the DP decreased the average CO2 emission fluxesby10.2%(P<0.05), slightlyenhanced theaverage N2O emission fluxes by 4.6% (P>0.05), and increased the average CH4 absorption flux by 15.9% (P<0.05).
Alpine grassland, Climate change, Greenhouse gases, Precipitation amount, Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
