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Soil conservation service on the Tibetan Plateau, 1984–2013

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2019

Jian SUN ,
Yu LIU ,
Tiancai ZHOU ,
Guohua LIU  and
Jingsheng WANG
Jian SUN*
Affiliation:
Synthesis Research Centre of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Emails: [email protected] and [email protected] State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
Yu LIU
Affiliation:
Synthesis Research Centre of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Emails: [email protected] and [email protected]
Tiancai ZHOU
Affiliation:
Synthesis Research Centre of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Emails: [email protected] and [email protected] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Guohua LIU
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
Jingsheng WANG*
Affiliation:
Synthesis Research Centre of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Emails: [email protected] and [email protected]
*
*Corresponding author
*Corresponding author
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Abstract

Soil erosion can pose a serious problem to environmental quality and sustainable development. On the Tibetan Plateau, soil erosion is one of the main challenges to regional ecological security. Our analysis investigates soil erosion and evaluates its economic value in alpine steppe, alpine meadow, alpine desert steppe and forest ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau. Analysis was carried out from 1984 to 2013. The results show that the annual average potential soil erosion, practical soil erosion and soil conservation calculated by the Revised University Soil Loss Equation model were 2.19×109ta–1, 2.16×109ta–1 and 2.72×107ta–1, respectively. The economic value of retaining soil nutrients, reducing the formation of wasteland and the economic benefit of reducing sediment deposition were 1.98×108RMBa–1, 2.55×1012RMBa–1 and 7.44×104RMBa–1, respectively. From comparing different ecosystems, we found that the forest ecosystem had the greatest soil retention and economic values. We also found that the potential and actual soil erosion values were extremely high on the Tibetan Plateau. The study highlights that state and local policymakers must give greater emphasis to ecological protection in the future.

Keywords

rainfall erosivitysoil conservation functionsoil erodibilitysoil erosion
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 109 , Issue 3-4: Earth Surface Processes and Environmental Sustainability in China , September 2018 , pp. 445 - 451
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2019 

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