Short-term grazing prohibition (STGP) is a common practice to restore degraded alpine meadows. But its effects on emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) and reactive nitrogen gases remain ambiguous, particularly regarding year-round dynamics and net climate impacts. Here, we address these knowledge gaps by investigating STGP ' s influence on methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitric oxide (NO) in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau with a field trial comparing the conventionally grazed and short-term-ungrazed treatments. Using static opaque chamber methods, we year-roundly measured dynamical fluxes of these gases in the second full year of grazing prohibition. However, the net climate impact of STGP remains uncertain due to the lack of diurnal flux measurements and concurrent CO2 exchange data. The STGP practice significantly (P < 0.001) increased CH4 uptake by (4)8 % annually and by 51 % in growing season. It significantly (P < 0.001) raised N2O emissions by 124 % annually and by 191 % in non-growing season while obviously (P < 0.05) reducing NO emissions by about 63 % in growing season. Notably, the STGP-stimulated N2O emissions surged by 288 % during freeze-thaw periods (P < 0.001). In addition, STGP tended to reduce temperature sensitivity for CH4 uptakes in non-growing season and for N2O and NO emissions in growing season. Notably, the CO2-equivalent balance reveals a trade-off: while the aggregate of CH4 and N2O remained a net sink at the 20-year horizon, it shifted to a source at the 100-year horizon, with STGP increasing the net positive emission by nearly 5-fold. This suggests that the climate benefit of enhanced CH4 uptake could be offset by intensified N2O emissions over the long term. However, the net climate impact of STGP still remains uncertain due to methodological constraints, including the use of static opaque chambers (which exclude diurnal and plant-mediated fluxes) and the lack of simultaneous CO2 exchange measurements. Future studies integrating complementary methods and longer-term monitoring are needed to fully quantify STGP ' s impact on net ecosystem GHG balance.