Rapid greening response of China's 2020 spring vegetation to COVID-19 restrictions: Implications for climate change

Fenzhen Su; Dongjie Fu; Fengqin Yan; Han Xiao; Tingting Pan; Yang Xiao; Lu Kang; Chenghu Zhou; Michael Meadows; Vincent Lyne; John P Wilson; Na Zhao; Xiaomei Yang; Gaohuan Liu

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abe8044

Rapid greening response of China's 2020 spring vegetation to COVID-19 restrictions: Implications for climate change

Sci Adv. 2021 Aug 25;7(35):eabe8044. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe8044. Print 2021 Aug.

Authors

Fenzhen Su^{1

2}, Dongjie Fu^{3

2}, Fengqin Yan^{3

2}, Han Xiao^{3

2}, Tingting Pan^{3

2}, Yang Xiao^{4

5}, Lu Kang^{3

2}, Chenghu Zhou^{3

2}, Michael Meadows^{6

7

8}, Vincent Lyne⁹, John P Wilson^{2

10}, Na Zhao^{3

2}, Xiaomei Yang^{3

2}, Gaohuan Liu^{3

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. sufz@lreis.ac.cn.
² College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁴ School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
⁵ Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
⁶ Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
⁷ School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.
⁸ College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China.
⁹ IMAS-Hobart, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7004, Australia.
¹⁰ Spatial Sciences Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.

Abstract

The 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) negatively affected global public health and socioeconomic development. Lockdowns and travel restrictions to contain COVID-19 resulted in reduced human activity and decreased anthropogenic emissions. However, the secondary effects of these restrictions on the biophysical environment are uncertain. Using remotely sensed big data, we investigated how lockdowns and traffic restrictions affected China's spring vegetation in 2020. Our analyses show that travel decreased by 58% in the first 18 days following implementation of the restrictions across China. Subsequently, atmospheric optical clarity increased and radiation levels on the vegetation canopy were augmented. Furthermore, the spring of 2020 arrived 8.4 days earlier and vegetation 17.45% greener compared to 2015-2019. Reduced human activity resulting from COVID-19 restrictions contributed to a brighter, earlier, and greener 2020 spring season in China. This study shows that short-term changes in human activity can have a relatively rapid ecological impact at the regional scale.

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