Balancing cropland gain and desert vegetation loss: The key to rural revitalization in Xinjiang, China

Abstract

In arid zones, ecological barriers can affect the agricultural development and sustainable development of oases. Therefore, balancing cropland and desert vegetation is the key to realizing ecological and rural revitalization. Then, we proposed a theoretical framework from the perspective of rural revitalization to analyze the key drivers that affect the balance of cropland and desert vegetation during 1990-2020. The results showed that cropland area in Xinjiang decreased by 881 km 2 during 1990-1995, while it continually increased by 34,086 km 2 during 1995-2020. However, grassland and woodland increased by 8,086 km 2 during 2015-2020, indicating that the balance between cropland gain and desert vegetation loss began to improve. Most cropland expansions were reclaimed from woodland/grassland and unused land. During 1990-2005, changes between cropland and unused land in Xinjiang were mainly affected by gross domestic product (GDP). GDP and population most significantly affected the conversion (17,939 km 2 ) of woodland/grassland to cropland during 1995-2015. Although population and economic growth led to an increase in cropland, the implementation of simultaneous and consistent policies on ecological conservation offset the reduction in desert vegetation. The findings can provide suggestions for smart cropland management and rural

Assessment of ecological quality in Northwest China (2000–2020) using the Google Earth Engine platform: Climate factors and land use/land cover contribute to ecological quality

“…Intensive (Zhang et al, 2020;Feng et al, 2022) and precision (Wu et al, 2005; agriculture serves croplands and brings economic benefits, which will further contribute to the improvement of ecological quality in Xinjiang. The Chinese government focuses on rural ecological revitalization in Xinjiang through geographical indications of agricultural products, ecological certification and rural ecological revitalization (Chen et al, 2021). All these policies and measures help to mitigate the impact of cropland expansion on ecosystems.…”

The Synergistic Effects of Glacier Degradation and Oasis Expansion Affect Future Water Security Risks in Southern Xinjiang, China

“…The oasis area in Xinjiang increased by 21.39% from 1972 to 2015 (He et al, 2018), and the artificial oasis on the southern margin of the Tarim Basin expanded by 1.28 times from 2000 to 2013 (Ren et al, 2015). The cultivated land area in artificial oases also grew significantly (Chen et al, 2022). Between1975 and 2015, cultivated land area in Xinjiang increased by 1.65 times (Wang et al, 2022).…”

Land reclamation increased organic P fractions and phosphatase activities, and strengthened the co-occurrence networks of phoD community in calcareous soils

“…Consequently, a large amount of uncultivated natural soil was reclaimed into croplands (Zhang et al 2022). For instance, during 1995-2020, the total area of cropland in Xinjiang region expanded by 34, 086 km 2 from woodland/grassland and/or unused nature land (Chen et al 2021). However, to a lesser extent, knowledge about how this human-induced land-use change influences organic P characteristic and phoD-harboring community has not been well-documented.…”