The increasing trend of air temperature along with the climate warming has been accepted gradually by scientists and by the general public. Qinghai_Xizang Plateau, a unique geographic unit due to high_altitude climate, is one of the most susceptible regions to climate warming. Its ecosystem is very fragile and sensitive to climate change. In order to get a better understanding of the impacts of climate warming on the nutrient contents of herbage grown in Qinghai_Xizang Plateau, a simulative study was implemented at Daban Moutain by using temperature differences resulted from sites selected at different altitudes and nutrient contents and in vitro digestibility were determined for assessing the quality of the grown herbage. There were significant downtrends in crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE) and nitrogen free extract (NFE) contents of herbage along with the increase of temperature. It had a positive correlation between temperature and content of acid detergent fibre (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL) in herbage. In vitro digestibility of herbage decreased along with the increase of temperature. The results of this study indicated that climate warming significantly influence nutrient contents and in vitro digestibility of herbage grown in Qinghai_Xizang Plateau. It is suggested that the future climate warming especially the gradual rise of the night temperature could cause negative effect on herbage quality grown in Qinghai_Xizang Plateau by decreasing CP, EE, and NFE contents and increasing some indigestible ingredients such as crude fibre (CF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), ADF, and ADL. This, consequently, decreases the ruminant assimilation ability.
