The Impacts of Revegetation on Ecosystem Services in the Extremely Degraded Alpine Grassland of Permafrost Regions

Juanjuan Du, Peijie Wei, Ali Bahadur and Shengyun Chen ()
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Juanjuan Du: Cryosphere and Eco-Environment Research Station of Shule River Headwaters, Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science and Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Peijie Wei: Cryosphere and Eco-Environment Research Station of Shule River Headwaters, Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science and Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Ali Bahadur: Cryosphere and Eco-Environment Research Station of Shule River Headwaters, Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science and Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Shengyun Chen: Cryosphere and Eco-Environment Research Station of Shule River Headwaters, Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science and Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Alpine grassland degradation in permafrost regions seriously affects the provision of ecosystem services, posing a threat to ecological security. Revegetation is a key strategy for the restoration of alpine grassland ecosystems on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP). However, there is a lack of comprehensive research evaluating ecosystem services after revegetation, especially in permafrost regions. In this study, we assessed the changes in ecosystem services following revegetation in the alpine permafrost regions of the QTP through on-site monitoring and sampling, using extremely degraded alpine grassland as a control. In addition, we analyzed trade-offs among ecosystem services and identified key drivers. Our results indicate that (1) revegetation significantly increased forage supply, carbon storage, and soil retention values ( p < 0.05), while water retention and permafrost stability showed no significant changes ( p > 0.05); (2) vegetation restoration effectively reduced the trade-offs among ecosystem services; and (3) the main drivers were vegetation coverage, precipitation, belowground biomass, and restoration duration. Overall, this study demonstrates that revegetation improves ecosystem services. The enhancement in these services provides valuable data for future research on ecosystem services in alpine grassland.

Keywords: revegetation; ecosystem services; trade-offs; permafrost regions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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