Frozen soil change and adaptation of animal husbandry: a case of the source regions of Yangtze and Yellow Rivers

This paper discusses the spatial and temporal change of different frozen soil types from 1980s to 2000s, and the impacts of frozen soil change on rangeland productivity and sustainable livelihood in the source regions of Yangtze and Yellow Rivers employed numerical model and GIS technology. Authors use the analytical framework of adaptation of animal husbandry according to national, regional, community and household scales, and release three key instruments of cryospheric change adaptation, including adaptive capacity of the policies, adaptive capacity of the people, and adaptive capacity of the grassland ecosystem. Analysis result shows that there is clearly a need, to develop institutional processes that support policy analysis to draw on existing information, that facilitate multidisciplinary research on topics of policy relevance, and that link the accumulation of credible cryosphere scientific evidence with policy making. Finally, Authors suggest that further support to mainstream climatic and cryospheric change concerns in adaptation policies and strategies of animal husbandry must include a focus on: (1) Formulating ecological compensation policy and mechanism for grassland ecosystem maintenance; (2) Strengthening vocational training, long-term essential-qualities-oriented education to improve indigenous people's professional skills and abilities; (3) Strengthening development of livestock replacement industries to broaden employment channels of indigenous people; (4) Strengthening the consciousness of ecosystem maintenance, improvement the social civilization level for indigenous people; (5) Continuous implementation the Ecological Protection and Restoration Program in the Three-River Source Region in national scale.

► We discuss the spatial and temporal change of frozen soil types from 1980s to 2000s, and the impacts of frozen soil change on rangeland productivity and sustainable livelihood. ► We release three key instruments of cryospheric change adaptation, including adaptive capacity of the policies, the people, and the grassland ecosystem. ► Authors suggest that adaptation strategies of animal husbandry must focus on: ecological compensation mechanism, vocational education, livestock replacement industries improvement, and continuous implementation the ecological protection program.