Abstract
Simulating spatiotemporal land use and land cover change (LUCC) data precisely under future climate scenarios is an important basis for revealing the carbon cycle response of forest ecosystems to LUCC. In this paper, a coupling model consisting of a back propagation neural network (BPNN), Markov chain, and cellular automata (CA) was designed to simulate the LUCC in Anji County, Zhejiang Province, under four climate scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6, 4.5, 6.0, 8.5) from 2024 to 2049 and to analyze the temporal and spatial distribution of bamboo forests in Anji County. Our results provide four outcomes. (1) The transition probability matrices indicate that the area of bamboo forests shows an expansion trend, and the largest contribution to the expansion of bamboo forests is the cultivated land. The Markov chain composed of the average transition probability matrix could perform excellently, with only small errors when simulating the areas of different land-use types. (2) Based on the optimized BPNN, which had a strong generalization ability, a high prediction accuracy, and area under the curve (AUC) values above 0.9, we could obtain highly reliable land suitability probabilities. After introducing more driving factors related to bamboo forests, the prediction of bamboo forest changes will be more accurate. (3) The BPNN_CA_Markov coupling model could achieve high-precision simulation of LUCC at different times, with an overall accuracy greater than 70%, and the consistency of the LUCC simulation from one time to another also had good performance, with a figure of merit (FOM) of approximately 40%. (4) Under the future four RCP scenarios, bamboo forest evolution had similar spatial characteristics; that is, bamboo forests were projected to expand in the northeast, south, and southwest mountainous areas of Anji County, while bamboo forests were projected to decline mainly around the junction of the central and mountainous areas of Anji County. Comparing the simulation results of different scenarios demonstrates that 74% of the spatiotemporal evolution of bamboo forests will be influenced by the interactions and competition among different land-use types and other driving factors, and 26% will come from different climate scenarios, among which the RCP8.5 scenario will have the greatest impact on the bamboo forest area and spatiotemporal evolution, while the RCP2.6 scenario will have the smallest impact. In short, this study proposes effective methods and ideas for LUCC simulation in the context of climate change and provides accurate data support for analyzing the impact of LUCC on the carbon cycle of bamboo forests.
Highlights
Land use and land cover change (LUCC) is a direct driving factor affecting the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems, and its impact on global warming is second only to that of fossil fuels and industrial emissions [1,2,3]
Comparing the simulation results of different scenarios demonstrates that 74% of the spatiotemporal evolution of bamboo forests will be influenced by the interactions and competition among different land-use types and other driving factors, and 26% will come from different climate scenarios, among which the RCP8.5 scenario will have the greatest impact on the bamboo forest area and spatiotemporal evolution, while the RCP2.6 scenario will have the smallest impact
Accurate LUCC simulation is proposed under the background that LUCC affects the carbon budget of terrestrial ecosystems, and global climate change has an urgent need for information on the regional and global future land-use spatiotemporal evolution patterns [7]
Summary
Land use and land cover change (LUCC) is a direct driving factor affecting the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems, and its impact on global warming is second only to that of fossil fuels and industrial emissions [1,2,3]. Limited LUCC data cause considerable underestimations regarding the impact of LUCC on carbon emissions [6]. The lack of spatiotemporal LUCC data under the background of the future climate is an important limitation we must overcome if we are to reveal the response of the carbon cycle of forest ecosystems to future climate change. Simulating spatiotemporal LUCC data accurately under future climate scenarios and probing the spatial evolution trajectories of LUCC has important scientific significance for revealing the response of the forest ecosystem carbon cycle to LUCC. Accurate LUCC simulation is proposed under the background that LUCC affects the carbon budget of terrestrial ecosystems, and global climate change has an urgent need for information on the regional and global future land-use spatiotemporal evolution patterns [7]
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