title: Light-intensity grazing improves alpine meadow productivity and adaption to climate change on the Tibetan Plateau.
abstract: To explore grazing effects on carbon fluxes in alpine meadow ecosystems, we used a paired eddy-covariance (EC) system to measure carbon fluxes in adjacent fenced (FM) and grazed (GM) meadows on the Tibetan plateau. Gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Re) were greater at GM than FM for the first two years of fencing. In the third year, the productivity at FM increased to a level similar to the GM site. The higher productivity at GM was mainly caused by its higher photosynthetic capacity. Grazing exclusion did not increase carbon sequestration capacity for this alpine grassland system. The higher optimal photosynthetic temperature and the weakened ecosystem response to climatic factors at GM may help to facilitate the adaption of alpine meadow ecosystems to changing climate.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|College of agronomy, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China.|Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Yangjian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|College of agronomy, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China.
authors.forename: Mingjie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Juntao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, United States.
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wimberly
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Guirui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Shuli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Xianzhou
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.|Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Jingsheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D057486:Carbon Cycle / Q000502:physiology; D057231:Climate Change; D017753:Ecosystem; D065948:Grassland; D010788:Photosynthesis; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D013696:Temperature; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D012987:Soil