Quantifying the impacts of drought and ecological restoration on net primary production changes in the Chinese Loess Plateau.

Xiaowei Jiang,Jianjun Bai,Jian Liu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0238997

Abstract

Net primary production (NPP) can regulate global climate change and carbon balance. Although scholars have qualitatively studied the influencing factors of NPP, few have quantified the contribution of different degrees of drought aggravation or mitigation and major land-use changes to NPP changes. Based on the temporal and spatial characteristics of NPP for 2000–2015 in the Chinese Loess Plateau, we quantified the contribution of drought, land use and land cover change (LUCC), and hydrothermal conditions to changes in NPP. Particularly, we analyzed the contribution of major land-use change and different drought levels to NPP. Our results showed that the 15-years average NPP was approximately 227 gC/m2 and decreased from southeast to northwest. Overall, NPP showed a linear increasing trend over the 15-years period. The results suggested that changes in hydrothermal conditions had the strongest impact on NPP (~61%), followed by drought (~33%), and land use and land cover change had the weakest impact (~1.4%). In particular, ~13% of the NPP decreases was affected by light drought aggravation, ~10% of the NPP decreases was affected by moderate drought aggravation, and ~0.3% was affected by the conversion of cropland to grassland or non-NPP main production land. Moreover, ~12.7% of the NPP increase was affected by light drought alleviation, ~9.4% was affected by moderate drought alleviation, and ~1.1% was affected by the conversion of grassland to cropland or forestland. The mechanisms underlying the effect of drought and land-use change on NPP were clarified and provide an important reference value for future research on the carbon cycle and regional ecological environmental restoration.

Highlights

Since the industrial revolution, the massive combustion of fossil fuels has led to an increased release of greenhouse gases, such as CO2 [1, 2]
The regions with fast-growth Net primary production (NPP) were concentrated in some croplands of the western gully, the Hetao Plain of the north, and some central and southern valley plain areas, where the average annual growth of NPP was more than 40 gC/m2/year, and the land cover was dominant by cropland (Fig 6A)
The regions with slow- growth NPP were concentrated in the Middle East and the northern edge of the Loess Plateau, where the average annual growth of NPP was lower than 20 gC/m2/ year, and the land cover was dominant by grassland

Summary

Introduction

The massive combustion of fossil fuels has led to an increased release of greenhouse gases, such as CO2 [1, 2]. A series of environmental problems have occurred. As the first step of carbon sequestration in an ecosystem [3], net primary. Quantifying drought and ecological restoration on net primary production changes in Chinese Loess Plateau modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov. 3. SPEI product is available from http://digital.csic.es

Results

Discussion

Conclusion