Enhancing integrated observation network of multi-spherical interaction in Zoige Wetland and source area of Yellow River supports protection of Yellow River Water Tower

An integrated observation network for the energy-water-carbon cycle, with the Zoige wetland and grassland as the focus and covering the source area of the Yellow River (YRSR), has been established, which systematically revealed the characteristics of ecosystem evolution and carbon cycle in grassland and wetland ecosystems of the Zoige Plateau from the leaf-community-ecosystem-regional scales and its response mechanism to climate change, and accordingly, the ecological monitoring and restoration techniques for different types of degraded grassland based on the degradation of the alpine grass mattic epipedon were established, which significantly reduced the cost and enhanced the sustainability of the ecological management. The key processes and mechanisms of permafrost-snowpack-vegetation-atmosphere interactions have been clarified, and the SHUD (Simulator of Hydrologic Unstructured Domains) hydrological model and its software toolkit with packages including snow, permafrost, and alpine lakes have been developed, and the simulation for land surface processes, dynamic vegetation and hydrology were improved, deepening the understanding of the ecological evolution and hydrological effects of ecological restoration in the YRSR. It is proposed that the strong local land-atmosphere coupling process on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is the mechanism to maintain the afternoon convective precipitation on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, and the local land-surface-ecosystem-atmosphere coupling processes have been confirmed to play an important role in the water-energy-carbon cycles and their evolution on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, which provides a key scientific basis for the forecasting of afternoon convective precipitation on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau based on land-atmosphere interactions and the synergistic control of regional climate and ecosystems.