| Title | Revegetation in China's Loess Plateau is approaching sustainable water resource limits |
| Authors | Feng, Xiaoming Fu, Bojie Piao, Shilong Wang, Shuai Ciais, Philippe Zeng, Zhenzhong Lu, Yihe Zeng, Yuan Li, Yue Jiang, Xiaohui Wu, Bingfang |
| Affiliation | Chinese Acad Sci, Ecoenvironm Sci Res Ctr, State Key Lab Urban & Reg Ecol, Beijing 100085, Peoples R China. Joint Ctr Global Change Studies, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China. Peking Univ, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China. Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Tibetan Plateau Res, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China. UVSQ, CNRS, CEA, LSCE, F-91191 Gif Sur Yvette, France. Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Remote Sensing & Digital Earth, Beijing 100094, Peoples R China. YRCC, Yellow River Inst Hydraul Res, Zhengzhou 450003, Peoples R China. Chinese Acad Sci, Ecoenvironm Sci Res Ctr, State Key Lab Urban & Reg Ecol, Beijing 100085, Peoples R China. Fu, BJ (reprint author), Joint Ctr Global Change Studies, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China. |
| Keywords | VEGETATION GREENING TREND CARBON CO2 ECOSYSTEM CLIMATE IMPACT MODEL SEQUESTRATION AFFORESTATION ENVIRONMENTS |
| Issue Date | 2016 |
| Publisher | NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE |
| Citation | NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE.2016,6(11),1019-+. |
| Abstract | Revegetation of degraded ecosystems provides opportunities for carbon sequestration and bioenergy production(1,2). However, vegetation expansion inwater-limited areas creates potentially conflicting demands for water between the ecosystem and humans(3). Current understanding of these competing demands is still limited(4). Here, we study the semi-arid Loess Plateau in China, where the 'Grain to Green' large-scale revegetation programme has been in operation since 1999. As expected, we found that the new planting has caused both net primary productivity (NPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) to increase. Also the increase of ET has induced a significant (p < 0.001) decrease in the ratio of river runoff to annual precipitation across hydrological catchments. From currently revegetated areas and human water demand, we estimate a threshold of NPP of 400 +/- 5 g C m(-2) yr(-1) above which the population will suffer water shortages. NPP in this region is found to be already close to this limit. The threshold of NPP could change by 36% in the worst case of climate drying and high human withdrawals, to C 43% in the best case. Our results develop a new conceptual framework to determine the critical carbon sequestration that is sustainable in terms of both ecological and socio-economic resource demands in a coupled anthropogenic-biological system. |
| URI | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/458547 |
| ISSN | 1758-678X |
| DOI | 10.1038/NCLIMATE3092 |
| Indexed | SCI(E) SSCI |
| Appears in Collections: | 城市与环境学院 |
