Desertification in north China: background, anthropogenic impacts and failures in combating it

Abstract

Desertification in north China is ongoing despite the endeavours to mitigate it over the past 50 years. Overall examination of the context of desertification and defects of desertification-combating programmes is a prerequisite for desertification control, which is now attracting general concern in China. The physiographic circumstances of north China, including the dry, continental, mid-latitude climate, easily erodible soil surface and water shortage, provide the background to desertification. Climatic aridity and the evolution of land use and land management in recent decades have produced great stress on the land. The ineffectiveness of anti-desertification measures ascribed to inadequate scientific involvement in decision-making, neglect of the human dimension and the lack of a well-organized desertification monitoring system are discussed in this paper.

Impacts of climate change on Chinese ecosystems: key vulnerable regions and potential thresholds

“…Remote sensing data show that desertification has declined in the past two decades (Piao et al 2005b), but an assessment indicates desertification continues to increase (Yang et al 2005;Wang et al 2008b). Land use and land management (such as overgrazing and cultivation) as well as aridity have led to more desertified land in the semiarid northern region Chen and Tang 2005;Zheng et al 2006b) and even in the arid west (Wang et al 2006). Permafrost degradation and human activities have also contributed to further desertification on the Tibetan Plateau (Yang et al 2004b).…”

“…Life zone diversity in Xinjiang of northwestern China was the highest in the 1960s, dramatically decreased in the 1970s, and then gradually increased in the 1980s and 1990s, implying a more stable environment since the 1970s (Zheng et al 2006a). However, statistical assessments indicate increasing desertification in some regions (Chen and Tang 2005;Yang et al 2005). Climate change has a strong effect, but human activities such as overgrazing, land use change and population pressure in semiarid China contribute to increasing this desertification trend Chen and Tang 2005;Yang et al 2005;Wang et al 2006;Zheng et al 2006b).…”

MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and vegetation phenology dynamics in the Inner Mongolia grassland

“…China's vast grassland has also suffered from land degradation, mainly in the northern and western cold areas over long periods (Chen and Tang, 2005;Li et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2013). The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR), which is located along the northern border of China, is 68 % grassland (Kawamura et al, 2005a).…”

Wind Erosion Induced Soil Degradation in Northern China: Status, Measures and Perspective

“…Meantime, research on soil degradation is discontinuous in northern China, which in turn decreases the locally effective tools to combat soil degradation [39]. Although it is generally recognized that vulnerable eco-environments and irrational human activities result in soil degradation, there is ongoing debate on the soil degradation process for different temporal or spatial scales [12,40]. Therefore, a series of spatially diverse long-term research projects on soil degradation are needed to support executive decision-making.…”