摘要
Often referred to as the“Third Pole,”China’s Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau developed large amounts of peatland owing to its unique alpine environment.As a renewable resource,peat helps to regulate the climate as well as performing other important functions.However,in recent years,intensifying climate change and anthropogenic disturbances have resulted in peatland degradation and consequently made sustainable development of peatland more difficult.This review summarizes peatland ecological and economic functions,including carbon sequestration,biodiversity conservation,energy supplies,and ecotourism.It identifies climate change and anthropogenic disturbances as the two key factors attributing to peatland degradation and ecosystem carbon loss.Current problems in environmental degradation and future challenges in peatland management under the effects of global warming are also discussed and highlighted.
基金
This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(41671244)
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant(2016M600751)
a fund from Chengdu Institute of Biology,Chinese Academy of Sciences(KXYS20S1501)
It is also supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(2014CB846003)
China’s QianRen Program and a merit scholarship program for foreign students from Quebec,Canada,to G.Yang.We also thank Dr.Yongheng Gao for providing us the photo of grassland in QTP,and Dr.Mei Wang for her constructive suggestion for im-proving this paper.
作者简介
Huai Chen,E-mails:peng.changhui@uqam.ca;Qiuan Zhu,qiuan.zhu@gmail.com。
