Abstract: The coupling of spatially separated arable farming and pastoral grazing systems is one of the effective ways to increase the overall productive capacity of larger geographic regions in a climate transition zone. The coupling model of land use was used in this study to quantify the coupling degree of socio-economic benefits and ecological-environmental benefits under two interaction patterns of farming and pastoral grazing systems in Southern Tibet: (i) ‘breeding’ animals in a pastoral grazing region, and ‘fattening’ them in farming region, or (ii) ‘carrying forage’ from a farming region to pastoral grazing region for consumption by livestock. This study showed that the socio-economic benefits and ecological-environmental benefits from breeding animals in a pastoral grazing region and fattening them in a farming region gradually increased from 2008 to 2016. The ecological-environmental benefits of carrying forage from arable farming regions to livestock in pastoral grazing regions also showed a rising trend during the same period. However, the socio-economic benefits of the latter system displayed a wave-like dynamic state. The coupling degrees for the two interaction patterns of arable farming and pastoral grazing were in a state of coordinated development; however, the pattern of breeding animals in pastoral grazing regions and fattening them in arable farming regions was more sustainable than that of carrying forage from farming regions to pastoral regions for livestock use. These results provide a paradigm to quantify the coupling model of land use efficiency under two alternative interaction patterns linking arable farming and pastoral grazing land use in neighboring regions.

Key words: Southern Tibet, pattern of farming and husbandry, social-economic benefits, ecological-environmental benefits, coupling degree