Abstract
The overexploitation of Grasslands without any return-back and compensation is the major cause of degradation and deterioration of the grassland ecosystem. The Subsidy and Incentive System for Grassland Conservation (SISGC) in China aimed to restore grassland ecology by the reduction of overgrazing, promoting carrying capacity, and increasing alternative employment of herders in non-husbandry sectors. However, the ecological response to the SISGC still remains unclear on the national scale. Here, we used systematic sampling, and satellite image time series data revealed a widespread proliferation of major ecological indicators for grasslands, contrasting climate and actual net primary productivity (NPP) before (2004–2010) and after (2011–2017) the implementation of SISGC founded the contributions to policy, as simulated by the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford-Approach (CASA) model. On average, by two-phase comparison, the actual grassland NPP increased by 11.72%. The contribution of policy implementation and climate factors increased grassland NPP by up to 61.14% and 38.86%, respectively, but the response of the NPP growth of various grassland types exhibited divergence, mainly divided into policy-led (contribution rate of 52.28–97.02%) and climate-led (contribution rate of 57.56–96.00%). Hence, the SISGC policies should be renewed for different grassland types.
Highlights
China’s grasslands’ NDVI was temporally on the rise before the Subsidy and Incentive System for Grassland Conservation (SISGC), but the annual average NDVI spatially increased by 7.32% after the implementation of the SISGC
After the implementation of the SISGC, the NDVI of 72.5% of the grassland area was on the rise, while that of 27.5%
Our results have shown that the contribution rate of human activities to the grassland net primary productivity (NPP) increase in Qinghai Province is greater than that in Tibet
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Grasslands are the largest terrestrial ecosystem on earth, accounting for about 40%. The net primary productivity (NPP) of grassland is a direct indicator to reflect the health status of vegetation and the ecological quality to a certain extent [2,3]. Grassland is the main terrestrial ecosystem, comprising 41.7% of the land area, of China [4] and is the most basic living resource for native herders, and it provides huge
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