Changes in Landscape Patterns and Potential Productivity of Alpine Meadows in Shangri-La from 1995 to 2019

In this study, the distribution of alpine meadows in Shangri-La from 1995 to 2019 was firstly extracted based on Landsat winter remote sensing images, then the landscape pattern indices of alpine meadows were calculated, and the potential net primary productivity(NPP) of alpine meadows was estimated based on annual temperature and precipitation conditions. Finally, the changes in these above indices and their relationships with climatic and socioeconomic factors were analyzed. The results showed that from 1995 to 2019, there was a trend of climatic warming and drying in Shangri-La. And the indices of socio-economic in this region developed rapidly. Overall, the area of alpine meadows in Shangri-La declined from 1058.73 km² in 1995 to 755.35 km² in 2019, and the potential NPP of alpine meadows declined from 96.1 × 10⁴ t/a to 58.7 × 10⁴ t/a. These 2 indicators were negatively correlated with annual temperature, population size, GDP of primary industry, GDP of secondary industry, GDP of tertiary industry, and the inventory of large livestock, while they were positively correlated with annual precipitation. Moreover, the changes in area and potential NPP of alpine meadows showed obvious spatial heterogeneity, and this heterogeneity was highly overlapped with the spatial heterogeneity of climatic warming and drying. And the landscapes of alpine meadows in Shangri-La showed a trend of fragmentation, and the degree of fragmentation was positively correlated with annual temperature and socio-economic indicators, but negatively correlated with annual precipitation. This study shows that the alpine meadows in Shangri-La are undergoing significant degradation under the background of climate warming and drying and the increased intensity of anthropogenic disturbances.