The Western Pamirs (Tajikistan) under environmental change - Assessing vegetation change and associated ecosystem functions and services in the Rushan Range

西帕米尔高原是一个生物多样性很高的地区，拥有2000多种维管植物，其中包括160种地方性植物，这些植物发挥着重要的生态系统功能，为该地区和邻近的低地提供关键的生态系统服务。然而，有强有力的证据表明，帕米尔高原的土地覆盖和植被正在发生变化，对生态系统特性和相关功能和服务产生负面影响。该项目的目的是检测和描述乳山山脉（西帕米尔高原）植被和土地覆盖的变化，了解其驱动因素，并评估其对生态系统功能和生态系统服务提供的影响。重点是初级/生物生产、水供应/调节和土壤保持，因为这些被确定为研究区域特别感兴趣的生态系统服务。该项目将解决四个研究问题：1。研究区土地覆被有无时空变化？植物功能性状及其相关生态系统功能和服务是否随时间和空间发生变化？研究区土地覆盖和植物功能性状变化的主要驱动因素是什么？土地覆被和植物功能性状变化对生态系统服务供给的影响是什么？工作流可分为六个主要工作包（WP）。WP 1处理遥感时间序列的设置。WP 2确定了该时间序列中的土地覆盖变化。WP 3侧重于研究区域的功能生态学，高度依赖于野外工作。WP 4通过将现场数据与遥感数据相关联，将WP 1和WP 3的数据合并。WP 5利用WP 4的结果建立植物功能性状时间序列，并检测该时间序列的变化。WP 6的重点是对结果的评估，特别是对已检测到的变化的驱动因素的评估。

The Western Pamirs constitute a region of high biodiversity with more than 2000 vascular plant species, including 160 endemics, that perform essential ecosystem functions and provide key ecosystem services for the region and the adjacent lowlands. However, there is strong evidence that land cover and vegetation in the Pamirs are changing with negative impacts on ecosystem properties and associated functions and services. The aim of the proposed project is to detect and describe changes of vegetation and land cover in the Rushan Range (Western Pamirs), to understand their drivers, and to evaluate their impact on the ecosystem functioning and the provisioning of ecosystem services. A focus is on primary/biological production, water provisioning/regulation, and soil conservation as these were identified as ecosystem services of particular interest in the study area. Four research questions will be addressed in the project:1. Did land cover in the study area change in space and time?2. Did plant functional traits and associated ecosystem functions and services change in space and time?3. What are the predominant drivers of land cover and plant functional trait change in the study area?4. What is the impact of land cover and plant functional trait change on the provisioning of ecosystem services?The workflow can be divided into six main work packages (WP). WP 1 deals with the set-up of a remote sensing time series. WP 2 identifies land cover change in that time series. WP 3 focuses on the functional ecology in the study area and is highly dependent on field work. WP 4 merges the data of WP 1 and 3 by relating the field data to the remote sensing data. WP 5 uses the results of WP 4 to set up a plant functional trait time series and detect changes in that time series. The focus of WP 6 is on the evaluation of the results, particularly with regard to the drivers of the detected change.