Recent ecological transitions in China: greening, browning and influential factors

作者：Yihe Lü, Liwei Zhang, Xiaoming Feng, Yuan Zeng, Bojie Fu, Xueling Yao, Junran Li, Bingfang Wu · 发表于：Scientific Reports · 年份：2015 · DOI：10.1038/srep08732 · 被引用次数：274 · 研究领域：Land Use and Ecosystem Services、Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management、Environmental Changes in China

Ecological conservation and restoration are necessary to mitigate environmental degradation problems. China has taken great efforts in such actions. To understand the ecological transition during 2000-2010 in China, this study analysed trends in vegetation change using remote sensing and linear regression. Climate and socioeconomic factors were included to screen the driving forces for vegetation change using correlation or comparative analyses. Our results indicated that China experienced both vegetation greening (restoration) and browning (degradation) with great spatial heterogeneity. Socioeconomic factors, such as human populations and economic production, were the most significant factors for vegetation change. Nature reserves have contributed slightly to the deceleration of vegetation browning and the promotion of greening; however, a large-scale conservation approach beyond nature reserves was more effective. The effectiveness of the Three-North Shelter Forest Program lay between the two above approaches. The findings of this study highlighted that vegetation trend detection is a practical approach for large-scale ecological transition assessments, which can inform decision-making that promotes vegetation greening via proper socioeconomic development and ecosystem management.