Decreasing Net Primary Productivity in Response to Urbanization in Liaoning Province, China

The impact of climate change and human activities on the change in the net primary productivity of vegetation-taking Sichuan Province as an example

Vegetation is an essential component of terrestrial ecosystems, influenced by climate change and human activities. Quantifying the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to vegetation dynamics is crucial for addressing global climate change. Sichuan Province is one of the essential ecological functional areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and its vegetation change is of great significance to the environmental function and ecological security of the Yangtze River Basin and southwest China. In this paper, the modified Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach(CASA) model was used to estimate the monthly NPP (Net Primary Productivity) of vegetation in Sichuan Province from 2000 to 2018, and the univariate linear regression analysis was used to analyze the temporal and spatial variation of vegetation NPP in Sichuan Province from 2000 to 2018. In addition, taking vegetation NPP as an index, Pearson correlation analysis, partial correlation analysis, and second-order partial correlation analysis were carried out to quantitatively analyze the contribution of climate change and human activities to vegetation NPP. Finally, the Hurst index and nonparametric Man-Kendall significance test were used to predict the future change trend of vegetation NPP in Sichuan Province. The results show that (1) from 2000 to 2018, the NPP of vegetation in Sichuan Province has a significant increasing trend (Slope = 6.09gC·m-2·a-1), with a multi-year average of 438.72 gC·m-2·a-1, showing a trend of low in the east and high in the middle. The response of vegetation NPP to altitude is different at different elevations; (2) the contribution rates of climate change and human activities to vegetation NPP change are 4.12gC·m-2·a-1 and 1.97gC·m-2·a-1, respectively. In contrast, the impact of human activities on NPP is more significant than climate change. Human activities are the main factors affecting vegetation restoration and degradation in Sichuan Province. However, the positive contribution to NPP change is less than climate change; (3) the future vegetation NPP change trend in Sichuan Province is mainly rising, and the same direction change trend is much larger than the reverse change trend. The areas with an increasing trend in the future account for 89.187% of the total area. This research helps understand the impact of climate change and human activities on vegetation change in Sichuan Province. It offers scientific bases for vegetation restoration and ecosystem management in Sichuan and the surrounding areas.

Global cross-biome patterns of soil respiration responses to individual and interactive effects of nitrogen addition, altered precipitation, and warming

Anthropogenic activities have increased atmospheric N, precipitation, and temperature events in terrestrial ecosystems globally, with N deposition increasing by 3- to 5-fold during the previous century. Despite decades of scientific research, no consensus has been achieved on the impact of climate conditions on soil respiration (Rs). Here, we reconstructed 110 published studies across diverse biomes, magnitudes, and driving variables to evaluate how Rs responds to N addition, altered precipitation (both enhanced and reduced precipitation or precipitation changes), and warming. Our findings show that N addition significantly increased Rs by 44 % in forests and decreased it by 19 % and 26 % in croplands and grasslands, respectively (P < 0.05). In forests and croplands, altered precipitation significantly increased Rs by 51 % and 17 % (all, P < 0.05), respectively, whereas impacts on grassland were insignificant. In comparison, warming stimulated Rs by 62 % in forests but inhibited it by 10 % in croplands (all, P < 0.05), whereas impacts on grassland were again insignificant. In addition, across all biomes, the responses of Rs to altered precipitation and warming followed a Gaussian response, increasing up to a threshold of 1800 mm and 25 °C, respectively, above which respiration rates decreased with further increases in precipitation and temperature. Our work suggests that the dual interaction of warming × altered precipitation promotes belowground CO₂ emission, thus enhancing global warming. In general, the interactive effect of N addition × altered precipitation decreases Rs. Soil moisture was identified as a primary driver of Rs. Given these findings, we recommend future research on warming vs. changed precipitation to better forecast and understand the interaction between Rs and climate change.

Net Primary Productivity Variations Associated with Climate Change and Human Activities in Nanjing Metropolitan Area of China

Rapid economic development has changed land use and population density, which in turn affects the stability and carbon sequestration capacity of regional ecosystems. Net primary productivity (NPP) can reflect the carbon sequestration capacity of ecosystems and is affected by both climate change and human activities. Therefore, quantifying the relative contributions of climate change and human activities on NPP can help us understand the impact of climate change and human activities on the carbon sequestration capacity of ecosystems. At present, researchers have paid more attention to the impact of climate change and land use change on NPP. However, few studies have analyzed the response of the NPP to gross domestic product (GDP) and population density variations on a pixel scale. Therefore, this paper analyzes the impact of climate change and human activities to NPP on a pixel scale in the Nanjing metropolitan area. During the period 2000-2019, the annual mean NPP was 494.89 g C·m^-2·year^-1, and the NPP in the south of the Nanjing metropolitan area was higher than that in the north. The NPP was higher in the forest, followed by unused land, grassland, and cropland. In the past 20 years, the annual mean NPP showed a significant upward trend, with a growth rate of 3.78 g C·m^-2·year^-1. The increase in temperature and precipitation has led to an increasing trend of regional NPP, and the impact of precipitation on NPP was more significant than that of temperature. The transformation of land use from low-NPP type to high-NPP type also led to an increase in NPP. Land use change from high-NPP type to low-NPP type was the main cause of regional NPP decline. Residual analysis was used to analyze the impact of human activities on NPP. Over the last 20 years, the NPP affected by human activities (NPP_hum) showed a high spatial pattern in the south and a low spatial pattern in the north, and the annual mean NPP_hum also showed a fluctuating upward trend, with a growth rate of 2.00 g C·m^-2·year^-1. The NPP_hum was influenced by both GDP and population density, and the impact of population density on NPP was greater than that of GDP.

A long-term and comprehensive assessment of the urbanization-induced impacts on vegetation net primary productivity

Urbanization not only directly alters the regional ecosystem net primary productivity (NPP) through land-cover replacement, but it is also accompanied by huge indirect impacts due to the associated climate change and anthropogenic activities. However, to date, limited efforts have been made to quantitatively separate the two types of urbanization impacts, and the continuous variations over a long-time span are not well understood. In this study, both the long-term direct and indirect impacts of urbanization on NPP were established and analyzed based on multi-source remote sensing data, taking the city of Kunming in China as a case study area. The results indicated that the intense urbanization process has led to a continuous decrease in NPP from 1990 to 2014, due to the direct impact of land-cover replacement. Nevertheless, the urbanization has also resulted in an apparently positive indirect impact on NPP, which has offset about 30% of the direct impact in recent years. The increasing trend of the indirect impact was found to be higher than the NPP trend in the surrounding forest areas, which proves that vegetation growth has been promoted by the urban environment. The indirect impact has also shown great spatial and temporal heterogeneity, with generally higher values in the old city area and winter season. This can mostly be attributed to the distribution of temperature, i.e., the urban heat island effect, which has shown a significantly positive correlation with the indirect impact. However, the correlations between NPP and climatic factors were found to be completely different, which confirmed the need to separate the direct and indirect impacts. Overall, this study has demonstrated that urbanization has reduced the total NPP over the region, but has promoted some vegetation growth, and the knowledge of the indirect impact will help to support urban greening planning.

Quantitative assessment of human-induced impacts based on net primary productivity in Guangzhou, China

Urban expansion and land cover change driven primarily by human activities have significant influences on the urban eco-environment, and together with climate change jointly alter net primary productivity (NPP). However, at the spatiotemporal scale, there has been limited quantitative analysis of the impacts of human activities independent of climate change on NPP. We chose Guangzhou city as a study area to analyze the impacts of human activities on NPP, as well as the spatiotemporal variations of those impacts within three segments, using a relative impact index (RII) based on potential NPP (NPP_p), actual NPP (NPP_act), and NPP appropriation due to land use/land cover change (NPP_lulc). The spatial patterns and dynamics of NPP_act and NPP_lulc were evaluated and the impacts of human activities on NPP during the process of urban sprawl were quantitatively analyzed and assessed using the RII. The results showed that NPP_act and NPP_lulc in the study area had clear spatial heterogeneity, between 2001 and 2013 there was a declining trend in NPP_act while an increasing trend occurred in NPP_lulc, and those trends were especially significant in the 10-40-km segment. The results also revealed that more than 91.0% of pixels in whole study region had positive RII values, while the lowest average RII values were found in the > 40-km segment (39.03%), indicating that human activities were not the main cause for the change in NPP there; meanwhile, the average RII was greater than 65.0% in the other two, suggesting that they were subjected to severe anthropogenic disturbances. The RII values in all three segments of the study area increased, indicating an increasing human interference. The 10-40-km buffer zone had the largest slope value (0.5665), suggesting that this segment was closely associated with growing human disturbances. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the > 40-km segment had a large slope value (0.3323) and required more conservation efforts. Based on the above results, we suggest that continuous efforts may be necessary to improve the intensity of protection and management in the urban environment of Guangzhou.

Temporal trends of surface urban heat islands and associated determinants in major Chinese cities

There are many studies focusing on spatial variations of surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) in literature. In this study, MODIS land surface temperature (LST) data and China's Land Use/Cover Datasets (CLUDs) were used to examine the temporal trends of SUHIs in 31 major Chinese cities during 2001-2015 using three indicators: SUHI intensity (SUHII), area of the SUHI (Area_SUHI) and percentage of area with increasing SUHII (PAISUHII). Correlation analyses between SUHII and background (rural) LST (extracted from MODIS LST), vegetation coverage (reflected by MODIS EVI data) and anthropogenic heat release (reflected by nighttime light data) were performed from temporal rather than spatial perspectives. Our findings showed that the SUHII and Area_SUHI in urbanized areas increased significantly in most cities in summer days, whereas they increased significantly in approximately half and more than half of the cities in summer and winter nights, respectively. In summer days, summer nights and winter nights, the PAISUHII was approximately 80% and over 50% in union areas and the 20km buffer, respectively. Correlation analyses indicated that the SUHII in stable urban areas was negatively correlated with the background LST in summer and winter days for most cities, especially in northern China. A reduction in vegetation contributed to the increasing SUHII in urbanized areas in summer days and nights. The increasing anthropogenic heat release was an important factor for increases in the SUHII in urbanized areas.