THE CONTRIBUTION OF LAND USE AND LAND COVER ON CARBON STORAGE IN THE NORTH TIBET PLATEAU, CHINA - Z. XU1; Z. Zhao; C. LU (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2021)
It’s important for understanding the impact of land use/ land cover (LULC) on carbon storage to optimize land use and ecosystem service payment scheme. Integrated the InVEST model with statistical analysis, carbon storage change in the Northern Tibetan Plateau (NTP), China from 2001 to 2010 was estimated, and the contribution of LULC to carbon storage change was assessed from both aspects of land cover conversion and carbon density change. Our conclusions showed that: carbon storage increased by 78.4 million tons, it’s stable in the southeast and middle, and an increase in the northwest of NTP. Land conversion was characterized by the decrease with the low carbon density land type, and increase with the high carbon density land type, dominated by net conversion of sparse vegetation into grassland. The carbon density of the NTP increased overall, especially that of grassland. The contribution of LULC to carbon storage increase reached about 80%, with the land conversion to carbon storage increase being 43.6%, while that of land carbon density to carbon storage increase being 37.1%. As a dominated land cover, policy-makers should focus on maintaining area of grassland and reducing grazing intensity, and a subsidized scheme to grassland conservation should be built based on the carbon sequestration capacity of NTP.
Keywords: journal article; carbon storage and sequestration; land use/ land cover (LULC); carbon density; land conversion; InVEST model; Northern Tibetan Plateau