China’s grassland has been undergoing rapid changes in the recent past owing to increased climate variability and a shift in grassland management strategy driven by a series of ecological restoration projects. This study investigated the spatio-temporal dynamics of Inner Mongolia grassland, the main grassland region in China and part of the Eurasia Steppe, to detect the interactive nature of climate, ecosystems and society. Land-use and landscape patterns for the period from 1985 to 2009 were analysed based on TM- and MODIS-derived land-use data. Net Primary Productivity (NPP) estimated by using the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach model was used to assess the growth status of grassland. Furthermore, the factors related to the dynamics of grassland were analysed from the perspectives of two driving factors, climate change and human activities. The results indicated that higher temperatures and lower precipitation may generally have contributed to grassland desertification, particularly in arid regions. During the period from 1985 to 2000, a higher human population and an increase in livestock numbers were the major driving forces responsible for the consistent decrease in NPP and a relatively fragmented landscape. From 2000 to 2009, the implementation of effective ecological restoration projects has arrested the grassland deterioration in some ecologically fragile regions. However, a rapid growth of livestock numbers has sparked new degradation onnon-degraded or lightly degraded grassland, which was initially neglected by these projects. In spite of some achievement in grassland restoration, China should take further steps to develop sustainable management practices for climate adaptation and economic development to bring lasting benefits.
Identifying the effects of climate change and human activities on the degradation and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems is essential for sustainable management of these ecosystems. However, our knowledge of methodology on this topic is limited. To assess the relative contribution of climate change and human activities, actual and potential net primary productivity (NPPa and NPPp respectively), and human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP) were calculated and applied to the monitoring of forest, grassland, and cropland ecosystems in Yunnan–Guizhou–Sichuan Provinces, southwest China. We determined annual means of 476 g C m–2 year–1 for NPPa, 1314 g C m–2 year–1 for NPPp, and 849 g C m–2 year–1 for HANPP during the period between 2007 and 2016. Furthermore, the area with an increasing NPPa accounted for 75.12% of the total area of the three ecosystems. Similarly, the areas with increasing NPPp and HANPP accounted for 77.60 and 57.58% of the study area respectively. Furthermore, we found that ~57.58% of areas with ecosystem restored was due to climate change, 23.39% due to human activities, and 19.03% due to the combined effects of human activities and climate change. In contrast, climate change and human activities contributed to 19.47 and 76.36%, respectively, of the areas of degraded ecosystem. Only 4.17% of degraded ecosystem could be attributed to the combined influences of climate change and human activities. We conclude that human activities were mainly responsible for ecosystem degradation, whereas climate change benefitted ecosystem restoration in southwest China in the past decade.
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