Temperate grassland vegetation restoration influenced by grazing exclusion and climate change

Tianci Huo; Jie Wang; Yaowen Zhang; Bin Wei; Kangli Chen; Minghao Zhuang; Nan Liu; Yingjun Zhang; Junyi Liang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168842

Temperate grassland vegetation restoration influenced by grazing exclusion and climate change

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Feb 20:912:168842. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168842. Epub 2023 Dec 1.

Authors

Tianci Huo¹, Jie Wang¹, Yaowen Zhang¹, Bin Wei¹, Kangli Chen¹, Minghao Zhuang², Nan Liu¹, Yingjun Zhang¹, Junyi Liang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Grassland Resource and Ecology, College of Grassland Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
² College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
³ Department of Grassland Resource and Ecology, College of Grassland Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China. Electronic address: liangjunyi@cau.edu.cn.

PMID: 38043819
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168842

Abstract

Grasslands are one of the most important terrestrial biomes, supporting a wide range of ecological functions and services. Grassland degradation due to overgrazing is a severe issue worldwide, especially in developing regions. However, observations from multiple sources have shown that temperate grasslands in China have significantly increased during the past two decades. It remains controversial what factors have driven the vegetation restoration in this region. In this study, we combined remote-sensing images and field survey datasets to quantify the contributions of different factors to vegetation restoration in six temperate grasslands in northern China. Across the six grasslands, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) increased by 0.003-0.0319 year^-1. The average contributions of grazing exclusion and climate change to the NDVI increase were 49.23 % and 50.77 %, respectively. Precipitation change was the primary climate factor driving vegetation restoration, contributing 50.76 % to the NDVI variance. By contrast, climate warming tended to slow vegetation restoration, and atmospheric CO₂ concentration change contributed little to the NDVI increase in the temperate grasslands. These results emphasize the significant contributions of both climate change and human management to grassland vegetation restoration.

Keywords: Climate change; Grazing exclusion; Greening; NDVI; Precipitation; Vegetation restoration.

MeSH terms

China
Climate Change*
Ecosystem
Grassland*
Humans
Telemetry
Temperature