Abstract
Globally, the extent of forest continues to decline, however, some countries have increased their forest extent in recent years. China is one of these countries and has managed to increase their tree cover through huge reforestation and afforestation programs during recent decades as well as land abandonment dynamics. This study investigates tree cover change in the eastern half of China between 2000 and 2010 on three different scales, using random forest modeling of remote sensing data for tree cover in relation to environmental and anthropogenic predictor variables. Our results show that between the years 2000 and 2010 2,667,875 km2 experienced an increase in tree cover while 1,854,900 km2 experienced a decline in tree cover. The area experiencing ≥10% increase in tree cover is almost twice as large as the area with ≥10% drop in tree cover. There is a clear relation between topography and tree cover change with steeper and mid-elevation areas having a larger response on tree cover increase than other areas. Furthermore, human influence, change in population density, and actual evapotranspiration are also important factors in explaining where tree cover has changed. This study adds to the understanding of tree cover change in China, as it has focus on the entire eastern half of China on three different scales and how tree cover change is linked to topography and anthropogenic pressure. Though, our results show an increase in tree cover in China, this study emphasizes the importance of incorporating anthropogenic factors together with biodiversity protection into the reforestation and afforestation programs in the future.
Highlights
The extent of forest continues to decline and since 1990 more than 1,290,000 km2 of forest has disappeared [1,2]
2,667,875 km2 of the eastern China study area has experienced an increase in tree cover between 2000 and 2010, hereof 1,165,250 km2 with an increase of ! 10% tree cover
Human Influence Index (HII) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per area (GDP/Area) were important factors on the 5×5 km scale and the county scale, respectively. These findings show that recent tree cover increase in eastern China is associated with low and declining human pressure, as well as steep terrain with limited utility for human activities and climatic conditions favoring tree growth
Summary
The extent of forest continues to decline and since 1990 more than 1,290,000 km of forest has disappeared [1,2]. The decline has slowed and some countries, mainly developed northern countries, has even increased there tree cover in recent decades [1,2]. Deforestation of natural forest and forest in the tropics continues [2,3,4]. Topography and tree cover change in China. The change in tree cover is of great concern, as forests are the primary habitat type for terrestrial biodiversity and deforestation is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss [5,6]. Forests have undergone drastic transformation during recent time and forests in China are no exception
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