Decoupling of alpine wetland degradation and regional development

• Continuous shrinkage of alpine wetland and peatland. • Land cover change from wetland to grassland. • Turning point in landscape fragmentation during 2000–2005. • Ineffective wetland landscape stability despite policy efforts. • Recommendation for prioritizing the “water-grass-livestock balance” model. Wetland is the core functional system of the global alpine region. However, with the development of the social economy in the past few decades, the alpine wetland ecosystem has suffered serious shrinkage, drying, degradation and landscape fragmentation. The decoupling of alpine development from the degradation of wetland ecosystem under global ecological protection would be an important basis for the future planning of regional sustainable development. However, little information is available on how this can be achieved. To fill this gap, we selected Maqu County, a typical alpine wetland region in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of China, to analyze the relationship between regional development and wetland ecosystem change in the past 35 years. We examined land use change, landscape pattern, socio-economic development, and a decoupling model. The results revealed that the region underwent a transformation characterized mainly by the conversion of “peatlands to marsh meadows to alpine grasslands.” Peatland decreased by 31.7 %, while desertified lands increased by 78.6 %. Fragmentation of the landscape and wetlands was alleviated during the period from 2000 to 2005; however, the overall trend of fragmentation remained pronounced. A fluctuating decoupling relationship between regional development and landscape fragmentation emerged. Livestock numbers exerted negative effects on landscape stability, especially on wetlands, which indicates that regions reliant on wetland grazing ecosystems for livelihoods are particularly sensitive to grazing activities. We propose a “water-grass-livestock balance” policy centered around water resources that emphasizes the importance of wetland water resource management.