This special issue covers a wide range of topics on the protection and sustainable management of alpine rangelands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), including Indigenous knowledge of sustainable rangeland management, science-policy interface for alpine rangeland biodiversity conservation, adaptations of local people to social and environmental changes and policy design for managing coupled human-natural systems of alpine rangelands.

The potential socioeconomic and natural causes of grassland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau are critically examined in this article. Population growth, overgrazing, socio-cultural transformations and climate change are among the top potential causes of grassland degradation, but they influence grassland structure and function differently at different spatial and temporal scales. Thus, it becomes critical to analyse various natural and socioeconomic factors in each specific region when choosing amelioration or restoration schemes.

The aim of the study was to examine the rangeland management systems and identify problems herders are facing in terms of production and livelihoods using a Participatory Rural Appraisal approach. The results showed that local herders perceived recent trends of rangeland degradation, climatic change and political changes. They also had developed management practices to adapt to these changes. It is suggested that policy-makers should recognise indigenous knowledge systems of grazing practices, rangeland management and the need for more advanced technical methods. They should not only pay more attention to climate change, social transformations and economic changes, but also strengthen public participation and cooperation with other institutions.

Herdsmen play key role in addressing conflicts of carnivore-livestock-ungulates in Qinghai-Tibet plateau of China, but not enough studies have been conducted on this. This study has tried to understand the local herdsmen’s attitudes towards rangeland fencing, Przewalski’s gazelle protection and control of wolf predation on livestock, and found out that while most herdsmen are willing to protect the gazelle and won’t kill wolves, they consider wolf’s predation on their livestock a big problem and want compensation for de-fencing to protect the gazelle. The herdsmen need to be considered and involved in the development and implementation of any program to protect the gazelle, recovery of wolf populations and maintain rangeland ecosystems.

Three key ecosystem services, namely carbon storage, water provision and habitat quality, were simulated for the rangelands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau by using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-off model, and the hotspots of those ecosystem services were evaluated and identified. It was shown that alpine meadows played a key role compared with alpine steppe and alpine desert, in providing these ecosystem services in the alpine rangelands of the QTP. In addition, it was shown that there had been a considerable decrease in both the potential and the protected hotspots of ecosystem service between 1990 and 2000.

Despite increasing evidence of the importance of plant diversity for ecosystem functioning in natural grasslands in the alpine region, the impacts of grassland degradation is not clear. The changes in plant and functional diversity may influence the ecosystem functions such as primary productivity, C and N stocks, soil conservation in degraded alpine grasslands. Therefore, it is important to restore the ecosystem functions of degraded alpine by protecting and increasing plant biodiversity according to the plant biodiversity-ecosystem function relationship.

The aim of the study was to describe vegetation changes in the Altun Mountain National Nature Reserve, which are vital for biodiversity conservation, habitat protection and nature reserve management. Changes in vegetation and their correlation with climatic variables were studied over the period from 1998 to 2012. Generally, the vegetation showed an increasing trend over time but with several annual fluctuations. Both precipitation and temperature were positive correlated with positive changes in vegetation.

The aim of the study was to quantify the spatio-temporal changes in vegetation characteristics from 2000 to 2012 in the rangelands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and relate them to human disturbance. The vegetation values showed an upward trend over the study period, with 28.5% of the area exhibiting a significant increase. The proportion of rangelands that experienced a downward trend in vegetation increased as the level of human disturbance increased. Of the different rangeland types, meadow had the highest vegetation values, the greatest human disturbance, and the highest proportion of rangelands that exhibited a significant decrease in vegetation. The results of this work will help us to understand the links between human activities and rangeland degradation and help to better protect and sustainably utilise the rangeland ecosystems of the plateau.

Banning of grazing is a widely used means of restoring degraded rangeland in China. However, little is known about the time required to restore degraded alpine meadows through the use of a grazing ban. An experiment compared continued grazing with a ban of grazing for different numbers of years. The results showed that a grazing ban can increase herbage mass and plant diversity but it is suggested that some grazing after a grazing ban may be necessary according to the dynamics of ecosystem responses with time.

We focussed on rangeland cover change associated with livestock grazing in the Altun National Nature Reserve. There was a positive correlation between the change in area of sparse rangeland and the amount of livestock grazing. The change in non-rangeland was significantly negatively correlated with the amount of livestock grazing in the grazed area. Appropriate livestock grazing may be essential for promoting the resilience of the predominant ecosystems and key habitats of wildlife.

The changes in vegetation composition and plant diversity of three different alpine ecosystems: alpine meadow, alpine steppe and alpine desert, impacted by different levels of degradation (healthy, lightly degraded and moderately degraded) were examined across a large-scale transect on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The importance values of the dominant species and levels of diversity were measured by various vegetation indices. The plant composition of the alpine meadow and alpine steppe ecosystems was more stable and appeared more resistant to disturbance than that of the alpine desert ecosystem.

The grassland ecosystem of the Tibetan plateau is being severely degraded by natural and human factors. Rodents have impact on grassland ecosystems because they can significantly change soil properties, ecosystem structure and plant communities. In large numbers, they have a negative effect on the ecosystem. The results demonstrated that burrow number and mound area had little impact on plant diversity indices which were mainly affected by altitude, soil total P content and pH. However, moderate rodent disturbance was associated with an increase in grassland productivity. Understanding these impacts is vital for better rangeland management practices so that rodents should be controlled within a suitable range rather than being exterminated.