Journal of Mountain Research 

About: Journal of Mountain Research is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Land use & Debris flow. Over the lifetime, 489 publications have been published receiving 1296 citations.

The Economic Evaluation of Grassland Ecosystem Services in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract: Referring to the methods of Costanza at el,this article revises the economic value of ecosystem services of natural grasslands in QinghaiTibet Plateau according to their biomass,estimates each ecosystem service of all kinds of grasslands ecosystems and concludes that the economic value of natural grasslands in QinghaiTibet Plateau per year is RMB ￥ 257×1011 that accounts for 1768% of the economic value of the grassland ecosystem services in ChinaAs the distribution scope of each kind of grassland and the ecosystem services per hectare are different,the weight of ecosystem services of each kind of grassland to all kinds of grasslands in different,in which the weights of alpine meadow,montane meadow and highcold steppe to ecosystem services of grassland ecosystems are 6252%,1414% and 1292%The article estimates the ecological value of each subregion of highcold grasslands according to the regional differentiation,and the result indicates that the ecological value of subregion has a trend of decreasing swiftly from southeast to northwest,which accords with the trend of the climate condition of QinghaiTibet Plateau that it is warm and humid in southwest,then cold and drought in northwestThis indicates that the regional distribution condition of ecosystems has direct impact on ecological valueThe estimation of ecological value of damaging grasslands into croplands shows that the ecological loss of Qinghai and Tibet is RMB ￥229×108,which accounts for 09% GDP of these two provinces

Spatial Distribution of Rainfall Erosivity in China

Abstract: Rainfall is the main dynamic factor that causes soil loss Rainfall erosivity factor in Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) shows the potential ability of the soil loss caused by rainfall Estimating the rainfall erosivity accurately is very significant to predict soil loss quantitatively and make soil and water conservation program Typical method of computing rainfall erosivity needs data of rainfall events, but this data is unreadily available In order to estimate rainfall erosivity more accurately and analyze the spatial distribution and temporal change of rainfall erosivity, an new method was adopted to compute the rainfall erosivity of china using daily rainfall data between 1971 and 1998 from 564 weather stations The distribution of rainfall erosivity has the trend of decreasing from southeast to northwest, which is similar to the distribution of rainfall However, the rainfall erosivity is influenced by rainfall amount and intensity, so there are a lot of difference between the distribution of rainfall and rainfall erosivity Moreover, the distribution of rainfall erosivity in china is different from actual distribution of soil loss in china The average annual rainfall erosivity exceeds the 10000 MJ·mm·hm-2·h-1 in south semitropical zone?north torrid zone and middle torrid zone where the soil loss is relative light, but the average annual rainfall erosivity is under the 2000 MJ·mm·hm-2·h-1 in all or most parts of the Loess Plateau where the soil loss is very serious In general, the seasonal distribution of average annual rainfall erosivity is very centralized in the regions where the average annual rainfall erosivity is relatively small The percentage of the sum of continual sixsemimonth rainfall erosivity to annual rainfall erosivity is over 80% in northwest and northeast regions in china, however the percentage in most parts of south of Changjiang River is under 60% The annual change of rainfall erosivity shows the positive trends in most parts of county and the rainfall erosivity increases 800 MJ·mm·hm-2·h-1 or more per 10 years for recent 30 years in the parts of Jiangxi and Hunan province There are a lot of difference between the annual changes of rainfall and rainfall erosivity because rainfall erosivity is influenced by rainfall amount and intensity

Permafrost Change and Its Effect on Eco-environment in the Source Regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers

Abstract: Based on 0cm, 5cm, 10cm, 15cm, 20cm, and 40cm thin-layer ground temperature data of five stations, thick-layer ground temperature data by borehole, and survey data in the period of 1980 to 1998, changes in permafrost were analyzed in details in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. The results show that permafrost has disadvantage conservation conditions as a whole and has degradation trend in area affected by climate warming in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers in recent 20 years. Annual mean ground temperature increases about 0.3～0.7℃ in island permafrost and seasonal frozen ground areas ,and about 0.1～0.4℃ in predominantly continuous permafrost area. The permafrost table has deepened by about 2～10cm/a. Uncoincidently frozen ground and residual thawed layers in the vertical profile have been forming in the permafrost fringe of the source region of the Yellow River. The lower limit of permafrost distribution rose about 50～70m. Degradation in permafrost has effected significantly on cold economy and eco-environment in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. But there is great uncertainty for permafrost degeneration and its effect on eco-environment in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers.

Ecological environment deterioration, mire degeneration and their formation mechanism in the zoige plateau

Abstract: The indication of mire degeneration has appeared since 1960 s in the Zoige platean.After forty years, the ecological environment deterioration and mire degeneration are tending towards more serious.The damages of the regional ecological environment and mire ecosystem are so grave that they can hardly be recovered by self_healing and artificial restoration.The behaviors of ecological environment deterioration and mire degeneration are as follows: aridity,type alteration,retrogressive ecological succession,region desertification,decreasing of quantity in species and population of rare animal,soil degeneration,declining of mire water_logging quality,grassland degeneration and rat disaster rampancy.It is undoubted that the neotectonics rising and warming and drying the climate are favorable for ecological environment deterioration and mire degeneration and provide the possibility for those but the human activity interference,which includes denuding forest,draining mire,exploiting peat and over_pasturing make the possibility into reality.Compared with natural factors,human activit interference is a main cause for the ecological environment deterioration and mire degeneration.

Study on Soil Loss Equation in Jinsha River Basin of Yunnan Province

Abstract: Soil erosion in Jinsha River Basin of Yunnan Province is very serious, and the Basin is a major region of ecological construction planning in China. The study takes universal soil loss equation (USLE) as original version, and analyses all factors of soil erosion in the Basin by means of the statistical analysis of the experimental data measured on experimental spots. As a result, the soil loss equation in Jinsha River Basin of Yunnan Province has been developed as follows: A = R·K·LS·C·P. The algorithm and data for every factor in the equation, as well as the tolerance of soil loss in the Basin have been determined, which provided the fundamental technological data for future use of the equation. At the same time, the author has made a test to the equation, the results indicate that the error of data by calculating does not exceed 6.3% when compared with the practical experimental data, which proved the equation may be very reliable in future application. The development of the equation may provide a series of dependable scientific methods and bases for predicting soil erosion, mapping out the rational utilization planning of land resources and the countermeasures of soil and water conservation, and projecting the ecological security pattern of land use in the Basin.