Integrated assessments of land degradation on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau

Land degradation has become a catastrophic global environmental issue. The current status of land degradation and changing trends of land remain unclear on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). This study integrated an Optimal Land Degradation Index (OLDI) and spatial footprints of three land degradation pathways (i.e., salini-zation, desertification and soil erosion) to investigate changing trends and degradation risks from 2001 to 2021 on the QTP. The results showed that land improvements were the dominant changing trends on the QTP compared to land degradation, accounting for 18.83% of the whole plateau. The regions with land improvements were mainly distributed in the northeastern QTP. High-risk degraded land covered an area of 0.55 million km2, and low-risk degraded land covered 0.78 million km2. The spatial distribution of high-risk degraded land varied gradually from scattered small areas to increasingly frequent connected patches from southeast to northwest. Potential driving factor analysis illustrated that land degradation resulted from multidimensional driving forc-ings, including topography, climatic factors, and human activities. The findings in this study can provide great insight for alpine ecosystem development and make adaption to achieve carbon neutrality with global warming.

Automated summary

This study integrated the Optimal Land Degradation Index and spatial footprints to investigate changing trends and degradation risks on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results showed that land improvements were dominant, accounting for 18.83% of the plateau. High-risk degraded land covered an area of 0.55 million km2, while low-risk degraded land covered 0.78 million km2. The spatial distribution of high-risk degraded land varied gradually from scattered small areas to increasingly frequent connected patches.