ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The Impact of Climate Change
and Human Activity on Net Primary
Production in Tibet
Xiaojing Qin1,4, Jian Sun2, Miao Liu3, Xuyang Lu1
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1Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Science, Chengdu 610041
2Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural
Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
3State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
4University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Submission date: 2016-02-23
Final revision date: 2016-04-30
Acceptance date: 2016-05-02
Publication date: 2016-10-05
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2016;25(5):2113-2120
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ABSTRACT
The Tibetan Plateau has faced environmental degradation in recent years due to intensified human
activity and climate change. In this study, the dynamics of net primary production (NPP), annual mean
temperature (AMT), annual mean precipitation (AMP), number of animals (NA), number of rural laborers
(NRL), and animal husbandry (AH) were analyzed and the response of NPP to climate and human activity
explored. The results show that NPP was increasing gradually from northwest to southeast and is similar
to the distribution of AMP. In addition, NA, NRL, and AH cluster around Lhasa. Moreover, AMP had
a negative correlation with NPP in Tibet while AMT has a positive effect on NPP. Moreover, because of the
large number of livestock there is a negative relationship between NA and NPP in most Tibetan regions.
Furthermore, it was found that human activity made a higher contribution to NPP in Tibet (24.73%) than
climate factors (17.28%). It is, therefore, necessary to further explore the relationship between human
activity and the vegetation dynamic in the region.