Climate warming ineluctably results in notable changes in permafrost, which is the product of cold climate and sensitive to climate change. Therefore, the evaluation on thermal regime shift of active layer in permafrost regions is essential in the context of the ongoing climate warming. 

However, there still lacks a systematic evaluation on the effect of warming on soil thermodynamics in the different ecosystems of permafrost regions, and the response characteristics of soil thermal regime in different alpine grasslands to climate warming are still not clearly identified. 

Recently, scientists from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of Chinese Academy of Sciences investigated the alterations of soil thermodynamics in alpine swamp meadow and alpine steppe under experimental warming by open-top chambers in permafrost regions of the central Tibetan Plateau (TP). 

They investigated the warming effect on soil thermodynamics in typical alpine grasslands in permafrost regions of the Beiluhe Basin on the central TP, characterized alterations in soil temperature, soil thermal parameters, soil freeze-thaw process and active layer thickness under warming for different grasslands, and investigated the mechanisms of possibly different responses in alpine grassland ecosystems. 

The study results showed that vegetation coverage and soil moisture content were responsible for the different responses of soil thermodynamics to experimental warming. 

This study has important implications for future scenarios as permafrost and grassland degradation may intensify under climate warming, and will enhance a deeper understanding of soil thermal dynamics of active layer in permafrost regions under future warming scenarios. 

This study has been published in the GEODERMA in an article entitled “Soil thermal regime alteration under experimental warming in permafrost regions of the central Tibetan Plateau”. 

Contact: 

CHEN Shengyun 

E-mail: sychen@lzb.ac.cn 

Cryosphere Research Station on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.