Abstract: In terms of the concept model of environmental carrying capacity based on ecosystem health through the application of the analytic hierarchy process, we established an index system for regional environment carrying capacity, determined the basic weight value of each evaluation index of environmental carrying capacity, and calculated the environmental carrying capacity in the upper reaches of the Yellow River Basin in Qinghai through the application of this evaluation index system. The results showed that, in 1985-2009, the human potential index of the upper reaches of the Yellow River Basin in Qinghai Province fluctuated upward. Simultaneously, the ecological elasticity capability index fluctuated downward, and the resource carrying capacity index and the regional environmental carrying capacity index also showed a slow downward trend. Regional economic development and hydroelectric resource utilization can have a lifting effect on the regional ecological system and environment carrying capacity, and thus how to exert this effect is an issue that should be paid special attention in the future.

Key words: fire severity, Great Xing’an Mountains, fire disturbance, aboveground carbon storage