To describe the general distribution patterns in the plant biomass and its spatial relationships to the soil properties along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the below ground biomass (BGB), above ground biomass (AGB), species, plant coverage, soil moisture, nutrition, and permafrost table were investigated. Our independent data sets from 19 sites indicated that the communities differed significantly from each other in the vegetation types, biomass, total vegetation coverage, and species richness and composition. Overall, the mean AGB of the alpine grasslands was 0.144 kg/m², with a greater mean value in the alpine meadow (0.183 kg/m²) than in the alpine steppe (0.060 kg/m²). AGB reached a maximum value of 0.351 kg/m² at the Liangdao River site. Spatial patterns of soil moisture and nutrients were different from those of plant biomass; BGB was positively correlated with total nitrogen, organic matter content, and available nitrogen in the 0–40 cm soil layer and with soil moisture in the 50–100 cm soil layer. Deeper soil moisture is an indication of shallower soil moisture regime over longer periods.

Changes of permafrost and the active layer affect geophysical process, water circulation, biological diversity and carbon storage. The monitoring of ground surface deformations is crucial and necessary to estimate the degradation of permafrost environment. In this study, the ground motions of the Tanggula section in the Qinghai- Tibet Plateau (QTP), a region with limited in situ measurements at spatial scale, have been investigated by the small baseline SAR interferometry (SBAS-InSAR). In total, 17 C-band ENVISAT ASAR images (acquired from January 1, 2009 to August 19, 2010) were employed. The results show that the ground surface motion was primarily in the range of – 7.6 mm per year to 6.7 mm per year, and the correlation coefficients and the P-values between deformations and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Surface Temperatures (LSTs) were ranged from -0.24 to -0.47 and from 0.09 to 0.41, respectively. And the precision file of the surface displacement rates map is showed that the estimated displacement velocity is reliable. Our study has observed that the majority of ground surface (approximately 70%) was relatively stable in the study period with displacements in the range of -2 mm per year to 2 mm per year and the ground subsidence is larger than the ground heave, implying the necessity of time series deformations surveillance derived from satellites in the permafrost environment.