Differences in the ecological impact of climate change and urbanization

Abstract

Urbanization is an important driver of climate change. It changes the characteristics of biological and non-biological elements in and around urban areas. The response of ecosystems to urbanization and climate change is complex. It occurs on all temporal and spatial scales due to the interaction of resources, energy and information among social, natural and biological systems. However, the extent to which climate change and urbanization affect the ecology has not yet been quantified. Here we choose the Qinghai Lake basin and 5 nature reserves as areas affected by climate change, and take Shanghai and 34 provincial capitals as representatives affected by urbanization. The results show that from 2000 to 2014, the advancement of growing season start and end in Shanghai was 46.18 and 73.36 times that of the Qinghai Lake Watershed. From 2001 to 2017, the growth rate of daytime and nighttime land surface temperature in Shanghai was 20 and 1.91 times that of the Qinghai Lake Watershed. The start of phenology in Hefei City is increasing 11.5 times earlier than Yellow River source area and 78 times earlier than that in Tibet. The mature day of phenology in Haikou City is increasing 9.5 times earlier than that in Yellow River source area and 123 times earlier than that in Qinghai Lake Watershed.