Abstract
Global increases in population and consumption have raised concerns regarding the sustainability of the current and future use of natural resources. The human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) provides a useful measure for determining human-derived alterations in the amount of biomass that is available in ecosystems each year. HANPP was calculated based on vegetation modelling, agricultural statistics, and remote sensing data on land use and land cover to assess the human impacts on ecosystems in the coastal areas of Jiangsu, China. The results showed that HANPP increased from 332 g·C/m2/year in 2000 to 442 g·C/m2/year in 2010, with an average annual increase of 2.9%. The proportion of appropriated net primary production increased from 50.3% to 71.0% of NPPpot, mainly driven by HANPPharv (harvested NPP) with an increase from 45.2% to 61.3% of NPPpot. Additionally, the spatial variation in average HANPP was striking among counties in the observed period with the lowest and highest values of 21.8% and 63.8% of NPPpot, respectively. Further analysis showed that observed levels of HANPP are high due to a high level of biomass harvest from cropland and the increases in fertilizer use, farmland irrigation rate and population and economic growth explain the trends in HANPP in the coastal areas of Jiangsu.
Highlights
Ecosystems are essential for human survival and development because they provide many types of services required by humans, e.g., food, fuel, and fiber
In this study, Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) was calculated in the coastal areas of Jiangsu from 2000 to 2010
The HANPPharv proportion of HANPP ranged between 77.4% and 106.8% in the observed period, with a mean value of 92.7%
Summary
Ecosystems are essential for human survival and development because they provide many types of services required by humans, e.g., food, fuel, and fiber. With the rapid development of economies and societies, huge impacts have been observed on the balance of ecosystems because of the over-consumption of natural resources [1]. Extensive attention has been given to HANPP, which is used as an indicator that links natural processes with socio-economic processes, and it is used to measure the limitations of ecological environments in relation to the population and economy [2,3,4]. Most studies of HANPP have been conducted at global and national scales, and smaller scale studies are scarce. Smaller scaleSussttauindabiielistya2r01e5,n7e, 1c–e1s4sary to better understand how HANPP can be used for land use policy and to demonstrate an important extension of HANPP
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