Dynamic of grassland vegetation degradation and its quantitative assessment in the northwest China

Zhou, Wei; Gang, Chengcheng; Zhou, Liang; Chen, Yizhao; Li, Jianlong; Ju, Weimin; Odeh, Inakwu O. A.

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2013.12.006

Cited by 112 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The other was that the driving forces of precipitation and air temperature were significantly stronger in semi-humid/humid area than semi-arid/arid area, while the driving force of sunshine duration were basically same in both type of areas. There were similar conclusions with the first point at the global and national scales in previous studies [7,22,54,97,98], while the driving forces on ecosystem productivity dynamics at smaller scales presented obvious spatial heterogeneity in different regions [58,69,93,[99][100][101][102]. The second point reveals that steppe sustainability is more susceptible to disturbances resulting from precipitation and temperature factors in semi-humid/humid area than semi-arid/arid area, but the effect of sunshine duration is stable in both type of areas.…”

Section: Driving Forces Of Dynamics Of Steppe Sustainabilitysupporting

confidence: 72%

“…There were previous studies demonstrating similar results and conclusions such as increasing trend of vegetation productivity and coverage in China's major steppe from 2001 to 2013 [24] and the rise in the total amount of NPP in China's terrestrial ecosystem from 1981 to 2008 [93]. However, there was opposite conclusion indicating that the overall change of vegetation NPP showed a degraded trend throughout northwest China in the same decade [69]. The main reason of the opposite conclusion was that the study area in this paper was larger than the one in northwest China and included some humid regions in the Yunnan Plateau and humid regions and semi-humid regions of the Greater Khingan Range and northeast China, and excluded the desert regions in Xinjiang.…”

Section: Dynamics Of Steppe Sustainabilitysupporting

confidence: 45%

“…However, the accuracy of the method is affected by the spatial resolution of NDVI and NPP data. The previous studies focused on quantitative assessment of the meteorological and anthropogenic driving force by using the CASA and the Thornthwaite Memorial models [18,55,[61][62][63][64]69,92]. However, it is hard to acquire some of the meteorological and anthropogenic data needed for these models, and the driving force of each meteorological and anthropogenic factors cannot be differentiated specifically with those models.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Chinese government started to carry out projects and programs in 2000 to protect the steppe ecosystem and realize the goal of reasonable utilization and sustainability for steppe resources [68]. However, few comprehensive studies were conducted to determine the pattern of steppe dynamics, its effects on steppe sustainability, and its driving factors at a regional scale within the study area in the 21st century [32,61,69]. …”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2) A copula model is suitable for variables obeying any type of distribution, and (3) a copula model is powerful for analyzing the nonlinear correlation between variables [79][80][81][82]. Recently, the copula model has been used to predict flooding using meteorological factors [69,70] and applied with satisfactory results in geoscience, hydrology, finance, and other fields [71][72][73]. Consequently, the copula model was a reasonable choice for analyzing correlations between NPP changes and meteorological factors in this study.…”

Section: Natural Driving Forces Analysis With Copula Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

A System Analysis on Steppe Sustainability and Its Driving Forces—A Case Study in China

et al. 2018

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Abstract:Steppe is an indispensable component for terrestrial ecosystems and it is of great significance to systematically analyze steppe sustainability and its driving forces. In this study, we propose a steppe dynamics ranking method based on Pauta criterion and a steppe sustainability assessment method with an effect matrix. The natural driving forces on steppe sustainability were systematically analyzed using the copula model, and the anthropogenic driving factors, including land use, were analyzed by using spatial overlay and statistical analysis methods. The results showed the following: (1) in general, steppe sustainability showed a trend of improvement from 2001 to 2010 in China. However, there were still some degraded areas scattered within the study area; (2) the consistent effect of steppe dynamics on steppe sustainability was significant on the whole, although there was a diverse effect on it; (3) among the natural factors, precipitation was the strongest positive driving force, followed by temperature average, while sunshine duration had strong negative driving force. The impact caused by land use factors was controlled during that decade, and the steppe land that evolved from urban and built-up land, cropland, and forest was vulnerable and resulted in steppe sustainability degradation.

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Section: Driving Forces Of Dynamics Of Steppe Sustainabilitysupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Dynamics Of Steppe Sustainabilitysupporting

confidence: 45%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Natural Driving Forces Analysis With Copula Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A System Analysis on Steppe Sustainability and Its Driving Forces—A Case Study in China

et al. 2018

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Evaluation of restoration approaches on the Inner Mongolian Steppe based on criteria of the Society for Ecological Restoration

Feng

Zhou

2020

Land Degrad Dev

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Ecological restoration is becoming an increasingly common management tool worldwide. However, a challenge still exists on how to effectively monitor restoration outcomes and evaluate restoration success for ecological restoration managers. In this review, the goal is to evaluate whether the research in a degraded area has been sufficient for fostering efficient restoration measures and follow‐up of restoration success based on the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) criteria. We selected the Inner Mongolian Steppe (IMS) in China as a model system. This area has been the subject of substantial research over the most recent years to understand degradation processes and restoration outcomes. We put together the variables used to assess degradation and restoration needs in the IMS and analyzed restoration results based on SER's nine criteria for evaluating restoration success. We found that the accomplished research in the IMS only partially supplied the data needed for evaluation of restoration success. The available results were sufficient for a proper evaluation of species composition and tentatively supported assessments of another seven criteria but not self‐sustainability. Grazing exclusion led to the fastest and most successful recovery of degraded steppe, but landscape‐scale processes during restoration in the IMS are still incompletely known. Our review supports large‐scale restoration of the IMS and emphasizes the need for long‐time monitoring for a more complete evaluation of the outcome of the IMS restoration following all SER's criteria.

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Assessing the degree of land degradation and rehabilitation in the Northeast Asia dryland region using net primary productivity and water use efficiency

Kang

Liu

et al. 2019

Land Degrad Dev

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Changes in vegetation productivity and species composition have been used as conventional indicators of land degradation and rehabilitation assessments. The two biophysical parameters vary nonlinearly during land change process with various time lags, which provide, as a whole, a useful framework to diagnose degree of land degradation and rehabilitation. In this study, the net primary productivity (NPP) and water use efficiency (WUE), which are the proxies of vegetation productivity and eco‐physiological properties related to species composition, were combined to develop an eco‐physiological framework to assess the degree of land degradation in the Northeast‐Asia dryland regions (NADR) from 1982 to 2012. Results from long‐term trends analysis showed early, middle or late degradation stages occurred in northern grassland and central barren or sparsely vegetated regions, respectively, while the rehabilitation prevailed in eastern croplands and forest, southern, and western grassland. In contrast, short‐term trend analysis illustrated the recent rehabilitation in mid‐eastern Mongolia and Loess Plateau, which was unseen in long‐term trend analysis. The spatial patterns and temporal changes of land degradation and rehabilitation could be explained partly by either or both natural and anthropogenic factors. Long‐term drying and warming might induce land degradation in northern and central NADR, respectively, while the recovery projects and wetting conditions after 2000s promoted the land rehabilitation in Loess Plateau and mid‐eastern Mongolia. Here, our NPP–WUE framework may contribute further conceptual development and rapid assessments on land degradation and rehabilitation in wide geographic regions.

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Dynamic of grassland vegetation degradation and its quantitative assessment in the northwest China

Cited by 112 publications

References 45 publications

A System Analysis on Steppe Sustainability and Its Driving Forces—A Case Study in China

A System Analysis on Steppe Sustainability and Its Driving Forces—A Case Study in China

Evaluation of restoration approaches on the Inner Mongolian Steppe based on criteria of the Society for Ecological Restoration

Assessing the degree of land degradation and rehabilitation in the Northeast Asia dryland region using net primary productivity and water use efficiency

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