Monitoring rangeland degradation on the “Three River Headwaters” region in 1990 and 2004, Qinghai, China

The “Three River Headwaters” Region rangeland ecosystem is extremely sensitive and fragile, and in recent years has undergone continuous degradation. The vast nature and unfavorable natural conditions of the region inhibits data acquisition and field experiments resulting in different concepts about the spatial characteristics and dynamics of rangeland degradation. In this paper, a novel Local NPP Scaling (LNS) method was adopted to monitor the rangeland degradation in 1990 and 2004. Measured field data was used to verify the results of the degree of rangeland degradation. The percentage of rangeland degradation increased from 32.86% to 36.7% between 1990 and 2004 indicating 3.84% rate of degradation over 15 years. It is concluded through analyzing the results obtained with field surveying data and other research results that the spatial temporal distribution of the rangeland degradation at TRHR is reasonable, and the LNS method proved efficient and effective in rangeland degradation monitoring in this region.