Grassland dynamics research in Kyrgyzstan
Recent responses of grassland net primary productivity to climatic and anthropogenic factors in Kyrgyzstan
Researchers
Yanwen Wang Song Hong Brett Bryan Chao He Hang Mu
Summary
Our project provides effective guidance for local government and Central Asian countries to achieve sustainable development based on the field investigation and remote sensing data. It aims to (1) detect the spatial and temporal variation in grassland net primary productivity (NPP) in Kyrgyzstan in the past several decades; (2) quantitatively assess the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities on grassland variations; (3) analyze the dominated driving forces of grassland dynamics in Kyrgyzstan, and (4) provide important contextual understanding for supporting policy for grassland maintenance and restoration under climate change and intensifying human pressures. In particular, we used a climate-driven model and a remote sensing-based model to evaluate the potential NPP and actual NPP, respectively, and the difference between them is the anthropogenic-induced NPP which reflects the loss of grassland NPP caused by human activities. By comparing the trends of the three types of NPP, we can distinguish the contributions of climatic and anthropogenic factors to grassland variations. We found that over the past two decades, both climatic variation and anthropogenic activities have significantly affected Kyrgyzstan’s grasslands. Grassland NPP decreased overall but patterns varied between provinces. Climate change, in particular changes in precipitation was the dominant factor driving grassland degradation in the north but human pressures also contributed.