The ecological footprint of alpine pastures at the village-level: a case study of Hezuo in Gannan Autonomous Prefecture, China
高寒牧区村域生态足迹——以甘南州合作市为例

Alpine pasture is a unique plant community with an ecological set of conditions and environmental pressures which are significantly different from other areas. This simple ecosystem has a naturally slow rhythm. Its functional instability is caused by the cold, alpine pasture environment which makes it vulnerable to disturbance and difficult to repair once damages occurred. To a certain extent, external forces and influences are limited in this cold climate because of its isolation from human activities. This leads to alpine pasture having a highly localized and sparse human population, so that human conflicts only tend to arise over grass-livestock conflicts. Based on characteristics of alpine pastures, the authors have revised the ecological footprint model and ecological carrying capacity model of this unique habitat placing strong emphasis on the key factors controlling ecological carrying capacity. These factors include the numbers and types of livestock, human population, local habitat conditions and regional characteristics. Following the methods of Hezuo, the authors then measured and analyzed the ecological footprint and ecological carrying capacity of 41 administrative units. The results show: 1) The distribution patterns and ecological footprints of the human population and their livestock are very different and roughly the opposite of each other, which indicates there are significant spatial differences between the environmental pressure on alpine pastures coming from the human population and pressures from livestock. 2) The combined ecological footprint of humans and livestock is mainly determined by the location of the livestock ecological footprint, so we can conclude the impact of livestock is the main factor in the formation of the combined ecological footprint. 3) Looking at the distribution of the ecological carrying capacity per unit area, the areas with a low carrying capacity are mainly located in the northern expansive pastoral areas at higher altitudes where the structure of the ecosystem is fairly simple, and main ecological types are alpine meadows and hydric grassland. Also, in these high altitude areas, frost weathering is quite strong, and the effective growing season is very short. Unlike these low carrying capacity and high altitude areas, the areas with high carrying capacity are mainly located around urban areas and along the Taohe River, with both grassland ecosystems and forested ecosystems present.In summary, we can conclude the main factor determining the ecological carrying capacity is our ability to improve anthropogenic factors, while dealing with the complex structure of natural ecological systems and harsh natural environment. 4) When we consider the nature of the spatial distribution of ecological surpluses and deficits, ecological deficit areas are mainly concentrated in pure pastoral areas, and overgrazing is the key cause for the ecological damage. So, the key to increasing the ecological carrying capa