Regional differentiation in the ecological effects of land cover change in China

Abstract

AbstractLand cover changes driven by either land degradation or land development have caused distinct alterations of the global environment. China has experienced a large area of land degradation and development, while the environmental responses to the national land cover changes are still vague. Based on remote‐sensed datasets, we analyzed the multiple ecological effects (temperature, biomass formation, and observed greenness) of land cover changes in China and their regional differences through neighbourhood analysis and Geogdetector, aiming to provide a theoretical basis for mitigating land degradation and sustainable land development. The results showed that the conversion of cultivated land to grassland and shrubland led to reductions in the greenness effect (−0.017) and biomass formation effect (−0.015 kg C m‐2), while the conversion of forest to grassland and shrubland led to a reduction in greenness (−0.01) and an increase in temperature (0.079°C). As the amplitude of the change in the land cover fraction increased, these trends became more obvious and irreversible. The same land cover change could have either positive or negative ecological effects in different climatic regions and at different elevation levels. In particular, the conversion of forests to grassland and shrubland had a warming effect on all climatic regions and elevation levels. The results can provide a regionally differentiated basis for improving China's current land use policy regarding the balance between cultivated land and natural land.