Vegetation structural shift tells environmental changes on the Tibetan Plateau over 40 years.

Structural information of grassland changes on the Tibetan Plateau is essential for understanding alterations in critical ecosystem functioning and their underlying drivers that may reflect environmental changes. However, such information at the regional scale is still lacking due to methodological limitations. Beyond remote sensing indicators only recognizing vegetation productivity, we utilized multivariate data fusion and deep learning to characterize formation-based plant community structure in alpine grasslands at the regional scale of the Tibetan Plateau for the first time and compared it with the earlier version of Vegetation Map of China for historical changes. Over the past 40 years, we revealed that (1) the proportion of alpine meadows in alpine grasslands increased from 50% to 69%, well-reflecting the warming and wetting trend; (2) dominances of Kobresia pygmaea and Stipa purpurea formations in alpine meadows and steppes were strengthened to 76% and 92%, respectively; (3) the climate factor mainly drove the distribution of Stipa purpurea formation, but not the recent distribution of Kobresia pygmaea formation that was likely shaped by human activities. Therefore, the underlying mechanisms of grassland changes over the past 40 years were considered to be formation dependent. Overall, the first exploration for structural information of plant community changes in this study not only provides a new perspective to understand drivers of grassland changes and their spatial heterogeneity at the regional scale of the Tibetan Plateau, but also innovates large-scale vegetation study paradigm.

Characteristics of nitrogen deposition research within grassland ecosystems globally and its insight from grassland microbial community changes in China.

As global change continues to intensify, the mode and rate of nitrogen input from the atmosphere to grassland ecosystems had changed dramatically. Firstly, we conducted a systematic analysis of the literature on the topic of nitrogen deposition impacts over the past 30 years using a bibliometric analysis. A systematic review of the global research status, publication patterns, research hotspots and important literature. We found a large number of publications in the Chinese region, and mainly focuses on the field of microorganisms. Secondly, we used a meta-analysis to focus on microbial changes using the Chinese grassland ecosystem as an example. The results show that the research on nitrogen deposition in grassland ecosystems shows an exponential development trend, and the authors and research institutions of the publications are mainly concentrated in China, North America, and Western Europe. The keyword clustering results showed 11 important themes labeled climate change, elevated CO2, species richness and diversity, etc. in these studies. The burst keyword analysis indicated that temperature sensitivity, microbial communities, etc. are the key research directions. The results of the meta-analysis found that nitrogen addition decreased soil microbial diversity, and different ecosystems may respond differently. Treatment time, nitrogen addition rate, external environmental conditions, and pH had major effects on microbial alpha diversity and biomass. The loss of microbial diversity and the reduction of biomass with nitrogen fertilizer addition will alter ecosystem functioning, with dramatic impacts on global climate change. The results of the study will help researchers to further understand the subject and have a deep understanding of research hotspots, which are of great value to future scientific research.

Livelihood resilience in pastoral communities: Methodological and field insights from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Livelihood resilience is crucial for both people and the environment, especially in remote and harsh ecosystems, such as the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau (QTP). This research aimed to fill the gap of assessing herders' livelihood resilience using more inclusive method. Using survey data from 758 pastoralists, complemented with focus group discussions and transect walks in the Three River Headwater Region (TRHR) on the QTP, we first developed a livelihood resilience evaluation index comprising dimensions of buffer capacity, self-organization and learning capacity. The method of entropy-TOPSIS was then applied to assess the livelihood resilience of local herders, and the spatial patterns were analyzed by spatial autocorrelation method. The results showed the overall level of pastoral livelihood resilience resulted weak, with an east to west spatial gradient toward lower livelihood resilience. Self-organization was the most important dimensions of livelihood resilience, with social cohesion being a dominant factor. Buffer capacity resulted the less important, but the natural capital was significantly higher than the other four livelihood capitals. Furthermore, the northeastern region was a hotspot, while the northwestern region was a cold spot of livelihood resilience. While pastoral populations in the TRHR had high self-organization abilities and potentially high learning capacities, the overall low buffer capacity and livelihood capital limited the improvement of their livelihood resilience. The key findings provide support for enabling policies and integrated strategies to enhance social-ecological resilience. Study may help as paradigm shift reference for the livelihood resilience of pastoral communities in high-altitude areas globally.

[Psychological status prior coronary angiography in patients with and without coronary artery disease].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the prior coronary angiography (CAG) psychological status in chest pain patients with and without coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: Ninety-nine patients with chest pain and scheduled for CAG were selected by cluster sampling method. The mental status was measured by Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-17 (HAMD-17) 24 hours before CAG, and the risk factors for CAD were also determined. RESULTS: There were 43 patients with HAMA score > or = 14, 18 patients with HAMD-17 score > or = 14 and 16 patients with both scores > or = 14. CAD was diagnosed in 46 patients by CAG. HAMA score was significantly higher in patients without CAD than patients with CAD (14.1 +/- 7.1 vs. 11.1 +/- 6.7, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Incidences of anxiety and depression were high in chest pain patients prior CAG and incidence of anxiety prior CAG was significantly higher in chest pain patients without CAD compared to chest pain patients with CAD.