Regional differences in the impact paths of climate on aboveground biomass in alpine grasslands across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) play an essential role in water conservation, biodiversity protection and climate feedback, with aboveground biomass (AGB) serving as a crucial indicator of grassland health and functionality. To date, studies have independently explored the phenological differences, cumulative effects, and spatial variability of climatic impacts on biomass/productivity in alpine grasslands. Nevertheless, the cascading effects regarding climate and phenology on AGB still present knowledge gaps. Here, using peak AGB measurements, remote sensing and gridded climate data in the QTP alpine grasslands during 2002–2018, we systematically analyzed the impact paths of climatic variables (i.e., cumulative precipitation, CP; growing degree-days, GDD) and phenology-mediated paths (start and peak date of the growing season, SOS and POS) on AGB and their regional differences. During the preseason (pre60) or the growing season (sos-pos), climate primarily directly impacted variations in AGB across different climatic regions, although a phenology-mediated path by which climate indirectly affected AGB existed (i.e., GDDsos-pos → POS → AGB). Three general patterns were revealed: In the plateau temperate arid regions, an increase in CPpre60 significantly promoted AGB (path coefficient w = 0.61–0.71), whereas an increase in GDDpre60 inhibited AGB (w = −0.42 ~ −0.47); In the plateau sub-cold regions, increases in both CPsos-pos and GDDsos-pos significantly promoted AGB, respectively (w = 0.46–0.81 and w = 0.37–0.70); Similarly, in the plateau temperate arid or semi-arid regions, increases in CPsos-pos also significantly promoted the AGB (w = 0.56–0.73). This study highlights that the water and heat accumulation mainly exert direct impacts on alpine grassland AGB across various climatic regions and phenological stages, providing insights into the mechanism driving AGB by climate and phenology during spring and summer.