Abstract
Land use planning usually increases the uncertainties of the ecosystem structures and functions because various human demands usually bring both positive and negative ecological effects. It is critical for estimating various land use changes and their ecological effects, but the previous studies have failed to decouple the respective and the combined effects of different land use changes on ecosystem services. Net primary productivity (NPP) could be used to indicate many ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and storage. Here, we employed a light use efficiency model to estimate the spatial and temporal dynamics of NPP in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) area from 2000 to 2015, and designed four scenarios to analyze the relative roles of afforestation, urbanization and storing water on NPP dynamics. Our results documented that terrestrial NPP of the TGR area increased from 547.40 gC•m−2 to 629.96 gC•m−2, and carbon sequestration capacities were 31.66 TgC (1Tg = 1012g) and 36.79 TgC in 2000 and 2015, respectively. Climate change and land use change both could contribute to carbon sequestration with 4.08 TgC and 1.05 TgC. Among these land use changes, only afforestation could sequester carbon with 2.04 TgC, while urbanization-induced and impoundment-induced emissions were 0.12 TgC and 0.32 TgC, respectively, and other land use changes also could release 0.55 TgC of carbon. This finding suggested that although positive and negative environmental effects happened simultaneously over the past decades, green infrastructure could effectively offset the carbon emissions from urbanization and storing water in the TGR area, which provides some fundamental supports for further ecological restoration and contributes to empowering land use policies towards carbon sequestration and storage at the regional scale.
Highlights
Increasing human activities have significantly altered the ecosystem function and service on terrestrial surfaces, especially in ecologically vulnerable areas [1,2]
Among these land use changes, only afforestation could sequester carbon with 2.04 TgC, while urbanization-induced and impoundment-induced emissions were 0.12 TgC and 0.32 TgC, respectively, and other land use changes could release 0.55 TgC of carbon. This finding suggested that positive and negative environmental effects happened simultaneously over the past decades, green infrastructure could effectively offset the carbon emissions from urbanization and storing water in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) area, which provides some fundamental supports for further ecological restoration and contributes to empowering land use policies towards carbon sequestration and storage at the regional scale
Net primary productivity (NPP) of of the TGR area increased from 547.40 gCm in 2000 to 629.96
Summary
Increasing human activities have significantly altered the ecosystem function and service on terrestrial surfaces, especially in ecologically vulnerable areas [1,2]. Xiao [30], Zhao et al [40], Xiao et al [41]) have estimated and analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics resilience,NPP enhance theTGR provision ecosystem services, recover biodiversity reduce the negative of terrestrial in the area, of the overall and relative effects of theseand land use changes on NPP ecological effects [1,36], which contributed to carbon sequestration and storage. We used a light use efficiency model, Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach (CASA), spatiotemporal dynamics of terrestrial NPP in the TGR area, the overall and relative effects of these to estimate. And wegreen designed four scenarios to analyze the area relative of afforestation, ecological infrastructure planning in the TGR and roles contribute to empowering urbanization and storing watersequestration on NPP dynamics. (2) analyze the overall effects of climate and land use change on NPP dynamics; (3) demonstrate the relative effects of various land use changes on NPP dynamics
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