Plateau's carbon gains fragile

With the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau experiencing an increasingly warmer and wetter climate, soil carbon storage is expected to rise, according to a recent study. However, this increase is fragile and can be easily undermined by extreme events tied to global warming and human activities.

"The total carbon sink of the ecosystem on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau now accounts for around 15 percent of the nation's," said Wang Tao, corresponding author of the study published in academic journal Nature Communications. Wang, a researcher at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasized the significance of understanding the plateau's carbon storage potential to support China's dual carbon goals — peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.

The study revealed that the soil carbon pool on the plateau constitutes over 90 percent of its total ecosystem carbon pool, serving as the cornerstone that supports the plateau's ecological security barrier function.