Multiple afforestation programs accelerate the greenness in the ‘Three North’ region of China from 1982 to 2013 |
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| Institution: | 1. College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China;2. Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology and Center for Spatial Analysis, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA;3. Center of CEF/ESCER, Department of Biological Science, University of Quebec at Montreal, Montreal H3C 3P8, Canada;4. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China;5. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, TX 78249, USA;6. Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization & Ecological Restoration Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China;7. School of Earth Science and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China;8. Institute of Biodiversity Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China;1. Laboratory of Critical Zone Evolution, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China;2. School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China;3. State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China;4. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;1. College of Urban and Environmental Science, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, 300387, China;2. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environment, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, 300387, China;1. Ecodynamics Group, Department of Earth, Environmental and Physical Sciences, University of Siena, Pian dei Mantellini 44, 53100 Siena, Italy;2. Global Footprint Network, International Environment House 2, 7-9 Chemin de Balexert, 1219 Geneva, Switzerland;3. Global Footprint Network, 312 Clay Street, Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94607-3510, USA;1. College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;2. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Land Quality, Ministry of Land and Resources, China |
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| Abstract: | China has launched multiple afforestation programs since 1978, including the ‘Three North’ Shelterbelt Development Program (TNSDP), the Beijing–Tianjin Sand Source Control Program (BSSCP), the Nature Forest Conservation Program (NFCP), and the Grain to Green Program (GTGP). These programs focus on local environment restoration by planting trees in semi-arid and arid regions and by protecting natural forests. However, the effectiveness of these programs has been questioned by several previous studies. Here, we report an increasing trend of greenness in this region using the satellite-retrieved normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from GIMMS, GIMMS-3g and MODIS datasets in the past 32 years. The NDVI increase for the ‘Three North’ region was 0.28%–0.38% yr?1 in 1982–2000 and 0.86%–1.12% yr?1 in 2000–2013, which is much higher than the country's means of 0.060%–0.063% yr?1 and 0.27%–0.30% yr?1, respectively. Most of the increase occurred in low and sparsely vegetated areas; and enlarged the moderate vegetated area (growing season mean NDVI above 0.5) from 16.5% to 25.7% for the two time periods, respectively. We also analyzed changes in the length of the growing season and the climate conditions including temperature, precipitation and two drought indices. However, these environmental factors cannot completely explain the changes in vegetation activity. Our study suggests these multiple afforestation programs contributed to the accelerated greening trend in the ‘Three North’ region and highlight the importance of human intervention in regional vegetation growth under climate change condition. |
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| Keywords: | Planted forest Ecological restoration NDVI Arid and semi-arid regions GIMMS GIMMS 3g MODIS |
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