Abstract
The aeolian desertification in Mu Us Sandy Land (MUSL) in northern China have been paid much attention, but the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to desertification dynamics are still not clear. Based on the Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+ and OLI images in 1975, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, we developed a database of aeolian desertification land distribution, discussed the spatial and temporal variation of aeolian desertification, and discovered the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to desertification reversal, using the trends of the potential net primary productivity (NPP) and the human-influenced NPP with meteorological data and MODIS NPP products. The results indicated that aeolian desertification developed firstly from 1975 to 2000, with serious and severe aeolian desertification land continually increasing, and then changed into a reversal state from 2000 to 2015, as the serious aeolian desertification land decreased, although the severe, moderate and light aeolian desertification land lightly increased. Human activities were the dominant factor in desertification dynamics in MUSL and had different contributions to aeolian desertification reversal in different periods. This study will improve our understanding of the processes of aeolian desertification.
Highlights
Aeolian desertification, defined as a phenomenon where aeolian transport is exacerbated by decreases in vegetation cover or increases in the intensity of aeolian processes, is a dominant form of land degradation in arid regions [1]
1975–1990 (Figure 3a), the added regions of aeolian desertification land were located mainly in the countries of Ejin Horo, Uxin, Otog and Otog Qian in the Midwest, which accounted for 43.09% of the total new aeolian desertification land; the main type of new aeolian desertification was light aeolian desertification land
In the second stage of 1990–1995 (Figure 3b), the added regions of aeolian desertification land were located mainly in the country of Uxin in the middle, and the severed degree of Aeolian desertification land was situated in the country of Otog and Otog Qian in the west
Summary
Aeolian desertification, defined as a phenomenon where aeolian transport is exacerbated by decreases in vegetation cover or increases in the intensity of aeolian processes, is a dominant form of land degradation in arid regions [1]. The driving factors for desertification mainly include climate change and human activities [5], but their interaction at different spatio-temporal scales makes the desertification process more complex [6,7]. Most studies have estimated the effects of each driving factor using correlation analysis [9] and principal-components analysis methods [10]. These methods rely on administrative socio-economic statistical and meteorological data, suffer, to some extent, from obvious subjectivity in terms of selecting variables, and are difficult to use to distinguish areas with various dominant factors
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