Grain For Green Program Research Articles

National Forest Ecosystem Inventory System of China: Methodology and Applications

The technical framework of China’s Forest Ecosystem Inventory System (CFEIS) was recently developed based on ecological indicators assessed continuously in the field at forest ecosystem research stations and China’s Forest Resource Inventory (CNFRI) conducted every 5 years. The CFEIS consists of Field Observations (FOs)of ecological indicators and Distributed Valuations (DVs)of forest ecosystem services. The CFEIS can be used with the CNFRI to observe and monitor the ecological status of forests in China. This paper provides a brief review of the CFEIS by introducing its establishment and summarizing its application coupled with the CNFRI. For the FOs, the principles of the monitoring system layout are provided. The Chinese Forest Ecosystem Research Network (CFERN) was set up, which was the largest nationwide network of forest ecological stations in the world. The facilities and equipment were systematically assembled. The national forestry standards were drawn up for describing and measuring the ecological indicators of forest ecosystems, and these standards were used to specify data collection and transmission. For DVs, a distributed measurement method was created, and an indicator system of evaluation was studied and established, with the CNFRI integrated; a series of evaluation formulas and a package of models were also integrated with the DVs. The CFEIS integrated with the CNFRI estimates forest ecosystem services in China and the ecological benefits derived from the Grain for Green program, and a green national economic accounting system will provide an important case for monitoring and inventorying forest ecosystems at a national scale. The CFEIS can provide important experiences for forest ecosystem inventory systems in China and many other parts of the world.

National-Scale Meta-Analysis of Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Accumulation Potential in China’s Grain for Green Program

Grain for Green Program (GFGP) by establishing revegetation on degraded cropland has been considered effective to capture soil carbon (C) in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the magnitude and direction of soil C sequestration and its relation to soil nitrogen (N) dynamics are still poorly known. This study analyzed the literature to determine the influence of low-yield cropland conversion on soil C and N stocks and summarized the results via meta-analysis from 94 recent publications (534 observations) from 1999 to 2018. Cropland conversion had a positive and significant impact on soil C stocks at depths of 0–20, 20–40 and 0–100 cm, and significantly affected soil N stocks at a depth of 0–20 cm. The changes in soil C significantly correlated with N accumulations, but increased at different rates. Soil C sequestration was highly positively related with initial soil C amounts for forest and grassland (0–40 cm), and shrubland (0–20 cm), but there was no initial soil N limitation for later soil N accumulation at all depths. A redundancy analysis revealed that restoration age was the main parameter affecting both soil C and N accumulations. This study showed significant and positive relationships between soil C and N after cropland conversion, and suggested that soil C sequestration could be sustained with soil N availability in the long term. Together, cropland conversion could effectively gain C stock without N limitation in long-term restoration under GFGP in China.

Exploring impacts of the Grain for Green program on Chinese economic growth

Research on effects of ecological restoration and afforestation and their links to land conservation and regional development have received global attention. The Chinese government has successively invested a substantial amount of funds in the Grain for Green Program (GGP) since the mid-1990s. The economic effects of the GGP on macroeconomic growth could be attributed to an increase in agricultural production and off-farm employment and follow-up industry development. Few studies have focused on economic effects of the GGP at the national level using long-term series of panel data in 31 provinces and cities across the country. This study analyzed the regional differentiation and temporal-spatial changes in the GGP and investigated economic impacts of the GGP at different scales. Results showed that the scale of the GGP varied significantly in the eastern, central and western regions and regional changes were characterized by temporal differentiation from 2000 to 2016. The GGP had a slightly negative impact on China’s economic growth, which presented an overall U-shape, changed with an increase in economic growth. Significant regional heterogeneities in economic growth and impacts of the GGP were observed in the eastern, central and western regions. In the current situation in China, the technical progress, adjustment of industrial structure and focus on human capital to promote the development of follow-up industries and farmers’ labor skills have demonstrated the role for improving economic growth and optimizing the GGP arrangement. It is crucial to achieve a synergy between ecosystem conservation and regional economic in China.

Trade-Offs Analysis of Ecosystem Services for the Grain for Green Program: Informing Reforestation Decisions in a Mountainous Headwater Region, Northeast China

The effects of forest restoration on ecosystem services and their trade-offs are increasingly discussed by environmental managers and ecologists, but few demonstrations have analyzed ecosystem service trade-offs with a view to informing afforestation choices. Here, we examined how the Grain for Green Program (GGP), an ambitious reforestation program in China, affected ecosystem services. We quantified regulating services and provisioning service in the potential scenarios, which were developed to improve ecosystem services better. The results indicated the GGP drove 14.5% of land-use/land-cover from 2000 to 2015, and all the regulating services increased. Prioritizing reforestations in steep-sloped and riparian farmlands can promote flood mitigation, water purification, and soil retention services by 62.7%, 25.5%, and 216.1% as compared with 2015 levels, respectively, suggesting that the improvements strongly depend on afforestation locations. Driven by the new GGP policy, a high proportion of economic forest increased provisioning service (272.2%), but at the expense of decreases in soil retention (−25.1%), flood mitigation (−11.4%), water purification (−36.6%), and carbon storage (−48.5%). We identified a suitable scenario that would reduce the trade-offs, which associated with afforestation types and their spatial allocation. Identifying priority areas of afforestation types can inform the GGP policy to assure sustainable and broader benefits.

Newly created farmland should be artificially ameliorated to sustain agricultural production on the Loess Plateau

AbstractThe farmland area on the Loess Plateau has decreased because of the Grain for Green Programme and other soil conservation measures. The Gullies Reclamation for Farmland Project has been implemented to increase the farmland areas. Many farmlands have been created, but their suitability for Note for his deletion: because of duplication crop production and sustainable management practices is unknown. Topsoil was sampled from 119 sites to evaluate the soil fertility parameters (e.g., SOM, nitrogen, phosphorus, clay). We found that (a) overall fertility was lower than the soil fertility III level criterion of Shaanxi Province except for the potassium due to the loess parent materials where nutrients were at low levels except for potassium and was extremely unfavorable for crop growth; (b) the distribution of soil fertility properties and quality were variable on the Yan'an regions and especially lowest in the northern areas because of slightly precipitation and vegetation coverage, as well as lack of SOM, nitrogen and phosphorus; (c) cultivation was the better choice for soil fertility restoration at short‐term in view of the higher enzyme activities and the contents of SOM, nitrogen, and phosphorus. The minimum data set for this type of soil quality analysis was determined to be SOM, CEC, NaHCO3‐P, Clay, DTPA‐Fe, DTPA‐Zn, and S‐UE. We recommend to planting of Medicago sativa and other legume crops in the uncultivated newly created farmland rather than letting it recover naturally. It is necessary to apply organic fertilizers, chemical fertilizer, and micro‐elements simultaneously and not rely solely on chemical fertilizers in the utilization of newly created farmland.

Spatiotemporal pattern of the trade-offs and synergies of ecosystem services after Grain for Green Program: a case study of the Loess Plateau, China

A vital approach for sustainable development is to achieve continuous synergies of ecosystem services (ESs). The implementation of Grain for Green Program (GFGP) in China has altered land use pattern and further affected ESs. The Loess Plateau, one of the crucial areas of GFGP, has a barren ecosystem. Thus, it is urgent to analyze trade-offs and synergies of ESs as it seeks to make rational use of natural resources. In this paper, three ESs (food supply (FS), water yield (WY), and habitat quality (HQ)) were selected to illustrate their relationships and changes during the implementation of GFGP. Accordingly, the correlation coefficient, the spatial autocorrelation, and the hotspot method were adopted to analyze the spatial agglomeration effect at the grid scale and the village scale. The obtained results indicated that the spatial distribution of the three ESs had their own characteristics. There is a synergy of WY and FS, and trade-offs of WY and HQ, and HQ and FS, respectively. Notably, the trade-offs and synergies of ESs were consistent at two scales, though the correlation coefficient was slightly different. Compared with the grid scale, the agglomeration effect on the village scale is more obvious. To promote region sustainable management, the interrelation of ESs should be taken into account in the eco-conservation policies.

Cost–benefit analysis for China's Grain for Green Program

The Grain for Green Program (GGP) that the Chinese government has implemented, the world's largest ecological restoration plan, has an important component based on payments for ecosystem services. However, the program's net benefits (which include compentation payments) remain unclear. To solve this problem, we proposed an improved cost–benefit analysis method that reveals the specific relationship between the benefits of each type of restoration and the multiple costs that must be incurred to generate those benefits. The results showed that the benefits and net benefits of GGP were 1749.2 × 109 RMB and 637.2 × 109 RMB, respectively in 2017. These were equivalent to total and net benefits that averaged 60.17 × 103 RMB·ha−1·yr−1 and 21.92 × 103 RMB·ha−1·yr−1, respectively, across the four methods. Afforestation of degraded land had the biggest total cost (509.1 × 109 RMB·yr−1), whereas establishing fruit tree plantations produced the highest net benefit (244.2 × 109 RMB·yr−1), but the best cost–benefit ratio was obtained by natural forest conservation (366.8%). To improve the net benefits of GGP while balancing the relationship between environmental protection and economic development, the GGP must be adapted so that managers plan program implementation based on net benefits; to do so, planners should choose the method for each site that maximizes the program's benefits.

Temporal and spatial relationships between soil erosion and ecological restoration in semi-arid regions: a case study in northern Shaanxi, China

ABSTRACT To assess the effects of the Grain for Green Program (GGP) on soil erosion is essential to support better land management policies in the Chinese Loess Plateau. Studies on the evaluation of the effects of the GGP on soil erosion have garnered heightened attention. However, few studies examined the efficiency of GGP on soil erosion control through spatial relationship analysis. Thus, this study focuses on analyzing the spatial variation relationship between soil erosion and GGP in northern Shaanxi, Chinese Loess Plateau, from 1988 to 2015. The Universal Soil Loss Equation was used to quantify changes in soil erosion at the regional and watershed scales, and the Geographically Weighted Regression model was used to analyze the spatial relationships between land use and land cover (LULC) and soil erosion. Our results indicated that the major characteristic of LULC change during the GGP was a rapid increase of vegetation area and a rapid decrease of cropland. Bare lands contributed to the most serious soil loss, followed by croplands and sparse grasslands. The GGP had a globally positive influence on the decrease in soil erosion over the study area, but the amount of soil erosion in western and northern regions maintained a severe level. Spatial heterogeneity in the nature of the relationships among different vegetation, croplands, and soil erosion was also observed. The change rate of wood and the change rate of soil erosion in northern sub-watershed represented a negative relationship, while the change rate of sparse grassland was negatively correlated to the change rate of soil erosion in 21 sub-watersheds, account for 72% of the study area. The GGP implemented in northern sub-watersheds were more effective for soil erosion control than southern sub-watersheds. We propose that current areas of vegetation can support soil erosion control in the whole northern Shaanxi, but local-scale ecological restoration can be considered in northern sub-watersheds.

Payoff of the Grain for Green policy

Abstract To protect the global ecological environment and prevent threats to human safety and property, nations around the world have invested heavily in ecological restoration programmes. However, we do not know whether these investments have been repaid by the resultant benefits. To answer this question, we developed an improved method of quantifying costs and benefits that accounts for more of the costs associated with ecological restoration, thereby letting us calculate the net benefit. To demonstrate this method, we analysed the Grain for Green Program (GGP), which is the world's largest ecological restoration programme. We found that the increase in net benefits amounted to a total of 530.1 × 109 RMB/year in 2017. However, 11 of China's 25 provinces have incurred net losses due to high cost increases and low increases in benefits under the GGP. Synthesis and applications. Because compensation payments to farmers and herders whose livelihoods were disrupted by implementation of the Grain for Green Program only accounted for 0.8% of the programme's cost, improving compensation payments will be essential to its success. Assessing Grain for Green Program the largest ecological restoration programme in the world will provide guidance for ecological protection and restoration policies around the world.

Coupling between the Grain for Green Program and a household level-based agricultural eco-economic system in Ansai, Shaanxi Province of China

The implementation of the Grain for Green Program (GGP) has changed the development track of the agricultural eco-economic system in China. In response to the results of a lag study that investigated the coupling between the GGP and the agricultural eco-economic system in a loess hilly region, we used a structural equation model to analyze the survey data from 494 households in Ansai, a district of Yan’an City in Shaanxi Province of China in 2015. The model clarified the direction and intensity of the coupling between the GGP and the agricultural eco-economic system. The coupling benefits were derived through linkages between the program and various chains in the agricultural eco-economic system. The GGP, the agroecosystem of Ansai and their potential coupling effects were in a state of general coordination. The agroecosystem directly affected the coupling effect, with the standardized path coefficient of 0.87, indicating that the agroecosystem in Ansai at this stage provided basic material support for the coupling between the GGP and the agricultural eco-economic system. The direct path coefficient of agroeconomic system impacted on the coupling effect was -0.76, indicating that partial contradictions occurred between the agroeconomic system and the coupling effect. Therefore, although the current agroecosystem in Ansai should be provided sufficient agroecological resources for the benign coupling between the program and the agricultural eco-economic system, agricultural development failed to effectively transform agroecological resources into agricultural economic advantages in this region, which resulted in a relative lag in the development of the agricultural economic system. Thus, the coupling between the GGP and the agricultural eco-economic system was poor. To improve the coupling and the sustainable development of the agricultural eco-economic system in cropland retirement areas, the industrial structure needs to be diversified, the agricultural resources (including agroecological resources, agricultural economic resources and agricultural social resources) need to be rationally allocated, and the chain structure of the agricultural eco-economic system needs to be continuously improved.

Do environmental conservation programs contribute to sustainable livelihoods? Evidence from China's grain-for-green program in northern Shaanxi province

Several studies reported that conservation programs worldwide have profoundly reshaped participants' livelihoods and influenced other socio-economic processes. A fully understanding of how such conservation programs influence human lives is, therefore, crucial for their success. There, however, is little robust evidence of the effect of China's grain-for-green program (GGP), the largest conservation program in the world, on participants' livelihoods. That is, we do not know whether the program fulfills its goal of, at the very least, doing no harm to the lives of participants while simultaneously enhancing their environmental perception. To help fill this gap, we used a sustainable livelihood approach and structural equation modeling, based on household survey data from China's northern Shaanxi province, to compare the livelihood components of participants and non-participants in the GGP. We then characterized the interactions and pathways between their livelihood components and environmental perception. We found that the GGP indeed does no harm to participants' lives. Although participants suffer from a small reduction in natural capital due to a sharp decrease in their landholdings, they have much more off-farm income, subsidies, and financial and social assets than non-participants. Respondents commonly held positive attitudes toward the program's environmental benefits, but they had weak perceptions of the social and direct economic benefits of the GGP. Respondents' environmental perceptions of the GGP were significantly influenced by the number of available laborers, their education and health levels, off-farm income, subsidies, and the accessibility of transportation. Therefore, further resources should be dedicated to improving education as well as rural health care and infrastructure in order to create more off-farm job opportunities for GGP participants. In addition, decision makers should carefully redesign supporting policies, such as payments for ecosystem services, to help poor participants rebuild their livelihoods.

Impact of revegetation of the Loess Plateau of China on the regional growing season water balance

Abstract. To resolve a series of ecological and environmental problems over the Loess Plateau, the “Grain for Green Program” (GFGP) was initiated at the end of 1990s. Following the conversion of croplands and bare land on hillslopes to forests, the Loess Plateau has displayed a significant greening trend, which has resulted in soil erosion being reduced. However, the GFGP has also affected the hydrology of the Loess Plateau, which has raised questions regarding whether the GFGP should be continued in the future. We investigated the impact of revegetation on the hydrology of the Loess Plateau using relatively high-resolution simulations and multiple realizations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Results suggest that revegetation since the launch of the GFGP has reduced runoff and soil moisture due to enhanced evapotranspiration. Further revegetation associated with the GFGP policy is likely to further increase evapotranspiration, and thereby reduce runoff and soil moisture. The increase in evapotranspiration is associated with biophysical changes, including deeper roots that deplete deep soil moisture stores. However, despite the increase in evapotranspiration, our results show no impact on rainfall. Our study cautions against further revegetation over the Loess Plateau given the reduction in water available for agriculture and human settlements and the lack of any significant compensation from rainfall.

Participants’ livelihoods compatible with conservation programs: evidence from China’s grain-for-green program in northern Shaanxi Province

As the largest conservation program and payments for ecosystem services in China, the grain-for-green program (GGP) has substantially changed land use and cover, and reduced soil erosion in participating areas. However, whether the GGP enhances participants’ livelihoods still lacks robust evidence. Based on the sustainable livelihood framework, the objectives of this work is to understand how livelihood capitals of participants changed and to examine which factors influenced participants’ livelihood activities and land use choices and to what extent before and after implementing the program. We found that despite a significant reduction in arable land area per capita, the GGP dose indeed do no harm to participants’ lives. In contrast, through key forces such as savings and debt, income diversity, education and health, transportation, and off-farm job opportunities, participants in the program have switched livelihood activities dominated by subsistence farming into off-farm activities such as migrant labor and rural business or high market-oriented horticulture/orchard farming. Transportation, education, health and off-farm work opportunities, income are key factors affecting livelihood activities. Besides, sustained and sound subsidies would contribute to improving participants’ livelihoods.

Crop production changes and the impact of Grain for Green program in the Loess Plateau of China

Since the Grain for Green (GFG) program was implemented in 1999, most steeply sloping farmlands in the Loess Plateau of China have been returned to forestland and grassland. To understand its impact on the food production, this study analyzed the spatiotemporal changes of food crop production (FCP) in the plateau and quantified the contribution of sown area and yield changes to the total FCP during 1998–2014 using factor decomposition models, and then discussed the impact of GFG program on the FCP based on literature data. With the implementation of GFG program, total sown area in the Loess Plateau quickly deceased by 17.3% from 1998 to 2003, and then gradually restored to 1.03×107 hm2 in 2010. Thereafter, it slightly decreased to 1.02×107 hm2 (94.6% of the area in 1998) in 2014. By contrast, total FCP generally showed an apparent growth trend, averagely increased by 1.71% per year in the whole plateau during 1998–2014. This increase was jointly contributed by the improved yield of individual crops, and the adjustment of cropping structure, i.e., the expansion of high yield maize crop. The factor decomposition analysis results indicate that the sown area shrinkage only reduced the growth rate of total FCP by 0.29% per year during 1998–2014, although a significant impact was found for the early stage of 1999–2003. The results suggest that the implementation of GFG program would not induce an obvious risk of the food security. Therefore, it is suggested that the GFG program should be set as a long-term strategic policy, by not only supporting the conversion of slope farmlands, but also helping local farmers to seek sustainable ways of land use to improve the income and livelihood. It can be combined with the poverty eradication program, to simultaneously achieve the national goals of ecological civilization building and the livelihood improvement of rural people in the Loess Plateau. Considering rainfall limitation, the conversion of slope farmlands should be prioritized to grasslands.

Target areas for harmonizing the Grain for Green Programme in China's Loess Plateau

AbstractWidespread land degradation has stimulated the implementation of a large‐scale ecological restoration programme in China's Loess Plateau—the Grain‐for‐Green Programme (GFGP). This programme has substantially increased vegetation cover and served to control soil erosion, but threatened regional food supply due to widespread cropland conversion. Consequently, a strategy balancing green and grain land uses is required. Here, we establish a dominance index of ecosystem services by quantifying the economic value of four key ecosystem services (net primary productivity, soil conservation, water yield, and food production), by combining spatially explicit datasets and census data. Using the dominance index, we identify the optimal areas to target for GFGP in the Loess Plateau. The identified areas (target areas) were the transition zone from low to high value of ecosystem services (ESV). These areas exhibited low grain productivity in addition to having the highest potential for soil conservation. Compared with other regions of the Loess Plateau, the loss of grain production due to cropland conversion in these target areas could decrease by 42%, whereas ESV could increase by 33%. Therefore, despite the fact that over the past 15 years (2000–2014) in these target areas more cropland was converted into ecological use (i.e. forest/grassland), there is still a need to strengthen ecological restoration in this region in the future. This study proposed a strategy for balancing green and grain from a spatial perspective, which could potentially solve land degradation issues and the tradeoff between ecosystem services in a more beneficial and targeted way.

Impacts of the grain for Green Program on the spatial pattern of land uses and ecosystem services in mountainous settlements in southwest China

The Grain for Green Program which is an important part of the strategy of Western development was initiated to protect the ecological environment and mitigate disasters. The upper reaches of the Min River basin is one of the key pilot regions for Grain for Green Program implementation in the mountainous areas of Sichuan Province, southwestern China. Therefore, monitoring the effect of the Grain for Green Program on the ecosystem services (ESs) in the montainous areas is important. Especially, several authors have emphasized the need to quantify spatial characteristics and evaluate ES values of land uses in mountainous areas from spatial and temporal perspectives. In this study, we firstly analyzed the spatial pattern of land uses in mountainous settlements before and after implementation of Grain for Green Program in the upper reaches of Min River, Sichuan Province of China. Based on lacunarity analysis, we explored the spatial characteristics of land uses including spatial heterogeneityand cluster. The results suggested that the spatial characteristics of land uses occurred at different scales, and there is strong relationship between spatial characteristic scales and the different distribution pattern of land use. We then quantified the relationships between geometrical features for land use pacthes and vegetation habitat suitability by multilevel Bayesian model. We found that the vegetation habitat suitability significantly affected on spatial location, size, and complexity of different land use patches in mountainous settlements. Based on assignment method of ES value per unit area, we finally quantitatively analyzed and compared the changes in ES values of land uses in mountainous settlements caused by Grain for Green Program from spatial and temporal scales. It is an important indicator for defining ecological potential by quantifying the change in ES value. After implementation of Grain for Green Program, the total ES value dramatically increased because of increase in forest and pasture areas. It suggests that the Grain for Green Program could bring effectively ecological benefit on protecting ecosystem functions in some degree. Application of spatial characteristics analysis of land uses and ES valuation in mountainous settlements to study the spatial structure of land use and service supplies should provide a better understanding of service provision and enable evaluation of the ecological integrity of land uses in mountainous areas.

The Impact of China’s Grain for Green Program on Rural Economy and Precipitation: A Case Study of Yan River Basin in the Loess Plateau

Large-scale deforestation and abandoned planting will bring about the destruction of the ecological environment and the deterioration of the climate. In 1999, China initiated its “Grain for Green” Program (GGP) to improve the ecological environment, control soil erosion, and adjust the agricultural industrial structure to promote the sustainable development of the rural economy. In this paper, economic statistics, rainfall, and remote sensing data are used to analyze the impact of the GGP on agricultural and rural economic development and regional precipitation in the hilly and gully regions of the Loess Plateau. The results show that since the implementation of the program, the employment structure of the labor force has changed and the regional economic growth and farmers’ income have increased. From 2000 to 2016, the total gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita GDP of the Yan River Basin increased. The conversion of large-scale sloping farmland to forestry and grassland resulted in the decrease of farmland area and the increase of forestry area. The maximum, minimum, and mean value of vegetation coverage increased year by year. With the increase of vegetation coverage, the surface roughness, soil water content, and evapotranspiration improved and annual average precipitation grew significantly after the implementation of the program (2000 to 2018). From 1970 to the implementation of the project (1999), the annual average rainfall decreased at the trough from 1988 to 1999, and there was an overall upward trend from 1970 to 2018. The GGP has an important impact on the economy and people’s income in the Yan River Basin, and the vegetation change caused by the variation of land use types has a certain impact on regional rainfall. Under the background of global and regional climate change, it is of great significance to fully understand the impacts of vegetation conversion on climate and its mechanism for objective assessment of driving factors in regional and global climate, as well as for scientific planning of future land use.

Simulating the impact of Grain-for-Green Programme on ecosystem services trade-offs in Northwestern Yunnan, China

One of the main manifestations of the Grain-for-Green Programme (GFGP) is land use change, which will affect the trade-off of ecosystem services. Since the implementation of the GFGP in Dali Autonomous Prefecture in 2000, land use/cover has undergone dramatic changes. This study used the CLUE-S model to simulate land use change in 2030, and explored the spatial pattern and relationship of different ecosystem services under the four scenarios of GFGP. The results show that, GFGP can help to improve indirect services of ecosystems, such as carbon storage and soil conservation. However, direct services of the ecosystem will decline, such as food production and water yield. Compared with 2010, the overall supply level of the four ecosystem services is the most balanced in the moderate GFGP scenario. In this scenario, total food production decreased by 179,000 tons and water yield decreased by 57 million cubic meters. Carbon storage and soil conservation continued to grow, increasing by 21.86 million tons and 17.87 million tons, respectively. The changes of ecosystem services in the strong GFGP scenario are extreme. The increases in carbon storage and soil conservation are at the expense of a significant reduction in food production and water yield. It can be concluded that GFGP may lead to intensifying ecosystem services trade-offs. Through comparing the changes of ecosystem services under different GFGP scenarios, it is found that the implementation intensity of GFGP should be deeply concerned in policy making.

The biodiversity benefit of native forests and mixed‐species plantations over monoculture plantations

AbstractAimChina's Grain for Green Program (GFGP) is the largest reforestation programme in the world and has been operating since 1999. The GFGP has promoted the establishment of tree plantations over the restoration of diverse native forests. In a previous study, we showed that native forests support a higher species richness and abundance of birds and bees than do GFGP plantations and that mixed‐species GFGP plantations support a higher level of bird (but not bee) diversity than do any individual GFGP monocultures (although still below that of native forests). Here, we use metabarcoding of arthropod diversity to test the generality of these results.LocationSichuan, China.MethodsWe sampled arthropod communities using pan traps in the land cover types concerned under the GFGP. These land use types include croplands (the land cover being reforested under the GFGP), native forests (the reference ecosystem as the benchmark for the GFGP’s biodiversity effects) and the dominant GFGP reforestation outcomes: monoculture and mixed‐species plantations. We used COI‐amplicon sequencing (“metabarcoding”) of the arthropod samples to quantify and assess the arthropod community profiles associated with each land cover type.ResultsNative forests support the highest overall levels of arthropod species diversity, followed by mixed‐species plantations, followed by bamboo and other monocultures. Also, the arthropod community in native forests shares more species with mixed‐species plantations than it does with any of the monocultures. Together, these results broadly corroborate our previous conclusions on birds and bees but show a higher arthropod biodiversity value of mixed‐species plantations than previously indicated by bees alone.Main conclusionIn our previous study, we recommended that GFGP should prioritize the conservation and restoration of native forests. Also, where plantations are to be used, we recommended that the GFGP should promote mixed‐species arrangements over monocultures. Both these recommendations should result in more effective protection of terrestrial biodiversity, which is an important objective of China's land‐sustainability spending. The results of this study strengthen these recommendations because our policy prescriptions are now also based on a dataset that includes over 500 species‐resolution taxa, ranging across the Arthropoda.

Evaluating flood regulation ecosystem services under climate, vegetation and reservoir influences

Abstract Flood regulation is one of the critical ecosystem services that people acquire from ecosystems. With climate change and variability and land use/land management, ecosystem services have changed globally. Some ecological restoration activities, such as the Grain for Green program (GGP) implemented in the Yellow River basin (YRB) of China, greatly change the flow patterns and affect the flood regulation services provided by ecosystems. Many studies have assessed the peak flow trends in the YRB; however, quantitatively evaluating flood regulation services while also considering the effects of climate, vegetation and dam construction is rare. In this study, the annual flood regulation index (FRI) was calculated from 1958 to 2014 for nine watersheds in the YRB using an index-based ecosystem service approach. Based on the community land model coupled with the geomorphology-based hydrological model (CLM-GBHM) established in the YRB, the annual FRI under two vegetation scenarios, i.e., (1) static leaf area index (LAI) in 1982 and (2) remotely sensed LAI from 1982 to 2014, was calculated. The effects of changes in climate and vegetation on the flood regulation services were then assessed. The Impacts of reservoirs were also discussed based on the FRI calculated using observed data. The results indicate that the annual FRI generally improved in most areas of the YRB over a 57-year period. The annual FRI significantly increased in the upper YRB while being stabilized in the headwater basin, primarily benefitting from the regulations by the Longyangxia and Liujiaxia reservoirs. When climate change was considered as a single influencing factor, the flood regulation services were negatively affected by extreme precipitation. Impacted by the increased total wet-day precipitation (PRCPTOT) and the average rainfall intensity (SDII) in the flood season, the mean annual FRI significantly declined by 6.3%–33.8% among the studied watersheds during 2000–2014 compared to those from 1980 to 1999. Positively impacted by the vegetation restoration after the GGP was implemented in 1999, the mean annual FRI increased 8.6% in the regions above Lanzhou station and 1.6%−5.5% in the five tributaries during 2000–2014. Our results suggest that the negative influences of the FRI from extreme precipitation should be considered under climate change, while improving the flood regulation ecosystem services through implementing vegetation restoration programmes can enhance flood risk management in other river basins.