Climate-forced ecological changes over the Tibetan Plateau

•We examine climate warming and its effects on ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau.•We combined field investigation, meteorological data and visual interpretation.•Lake and river areas exhibit increase trend whereas swamp area decreased.•Climate warming increased vegetation growth and agriculture production.•Freeze-thaw erosion pattern has changed to mild and moderate erosion.

Effects of global warming on ecosystem have attracted lots of attention; however, ecological response to climate change has been hardly documented in alpine regions. Here we investigated climate warming induced ecological changes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) over the past 50 years on the basis of a large amount of in situ field observation and remote sensing data. We found that climate warming up to 0.41 °C/10 a has greatly improved the heat conditions on the TP, thus exhibits a growth of 46,000 ha farmland during the past 30 years, with the largest growth rate by 19% which occurred above 4000 m. Terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP) has increased by 0.002 Pg C a− 1. Broad-leaved forest had the highest average NPP. Cultivated vegetation contributes most for causing NPP growth in the recent 30 years. We also found that seasonal frozen soil depth decreased as the consequence of climate warming. Increased snow-melting inflated lake and river areas, whereas swamp area decreased owing to reduced moisture in the root zone. Freeze-thawing erosion decreased because of the reduced annual range of temperature. Understanding the ecological effects of climate change on the TP is of great significance to improve environmental management and promote sustainable development.