Impact of global urban expansion on the terrestrial vegetation carbon sequestration capacity

Qingwei Zhuang; Zhenfeng Shao; Deren Li; Xiao Huang; Yuzhen Li; Orhan Altan; Shixin Wu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163074

Impact of global urban expansion on the terrestrial vegetation carbon sequestration capacity

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jun 25:879:163074. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163074. Epub 2023 Mar 24.

Authors

Qingwei Zhuang¹, Zhenfeng Shao², Deren Li³, Xiao Huang⁴, Yuzhen Li⁵, Orhan Altan⁶, Shixin Wu⁷

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China. Electronic address: shaozhenfeng@whu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China; School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China.
⁴ Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
⁵ School of Emergency Management, Xihua University, Chengdu 610039, China.
⁶ Department of Geomatics Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul 36626, Turkey.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China.

PMID: 36966836
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163074

Abstract

Continuous urban expansion has a negative impact on the potential of terrestrial vegetation. Till now, the mechanism of such impact remains unclear, and there have been no systematic investigations. In this study, we design a theoretical framework by laterally bridging urban boundaries to explain the distress of regional disparities and longitudinally quantify the impacts of urban expansion on net ecosystem productivity (NEP). The findings demonstrate that global urban expanded by 37.60 × 10⁴ km² during 1990-2017, which is one of the causes of vegetation carbon loss. Meanwhile, certain climatic changes (e.g., rising temperature, rising CO₂, and nitrogen deposition) caused by urban expansion indirectly boosted vegetation carbon sequestration potential through photosynthetic enhancement. The direct decrease in NEP due to the urban expansion (occupying 0.25 % of the Earth's land area) offsets the 1.79 % increase due to the indirect impact. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the uncertainty associated with urban expansion towards carbon neutrality and provide a scientific reference for sustainable urban development worldwide.

Keywords: Carbon neutrality; Global change; Net ecosystem productivity; Urban expansion; Vegetation.