Abstract: The Tibet plateau is strongly sensitive to global climate change and the ecosystem is very fragile. Highland barley is a major crop on Tibetan plateau and sensitive to climate change. Authors reviewed the studies on the impact of current and future climate change on barley production over the Tibetan plateau and summarized the changes of agro-meteorological resources and agro-meteorological disasters, as well as the impact of climate change on barley cropping systems, fertility and yield. The results of studies have shown that a significantly warmer trend was observed on the Tibet plateau compared to the trend in other regions, together with increasing precipitation, reduced sunshine hours, and more frequent agro-meteorological disasters such as drought and floods under climate change. The potential planting boundary of highland barely moved to higher latitudes and altitudes under climate change, which led to the potential cultivated region increasing. The climate change shortened the growth period and showed a potentially positive impact on highland barley growth. Cultivar renewal combined with technological advances boosted highland barley yields and the ability to climate change adaption. The future climate change would shorten the growth period of highland barley, which posed a big threat to highland barley production and food security on the Tibet plateau. Existing reports are limited in terms of the study area and there are few studies on climate compounding impacts and integrated risk assessment. Therefore, it is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanism of climate change impact on barley production, the technology of dynamic assessment of meteorological disaster impact and comprehensive risk, and to develop effective measures to promote the adaptation of highland barley to climate change, which can ensure food security for Tibetans over Tibet plateau.

Key words: Climate change, Tibet plateau, Highland barley, Impacts and adaptation measure