Using comprehensive and sequential vegetation classification system to predict the influence of climate change on vegetation succession of alpine grassland of Qinghai Plateau

Distribution of grassland vegetation is highly associated with climatic conditions and varied with climatic change. The tendency of climatic changes on Qinghai Plateau was analyzed, based on the meteorological data from 1961 to 2007 collected from 50 meteorological stations distributed throughout the whole plateau. The vegetation distribution of alpine grassland under past and future climatic change was estimated by using the approach of Comprehensive and Sequential Classification system. Results show that the climate varied greatly before and after 1987. The temperature increased 0.16°C/10a before 1987 and 0.64°C/10a after 1987. The precipitation increased 0.14 mm/10a before 1987 and 3.92 mm/10a after 1987. There were 12 types of grassland vegetation between 1961 and 1987, while there were 11 types of grassland vegetation between 1988 and 2007 on the Plateau. When climatic warming continued with CO₂ doubling in the future, the vegetation of alpine grassland will shrink into nine types.