Spatiotemporal Variation of Vegetation Coverage before and after Implementation of Grain for Green Project in the Loess Plateau

doi:10.11849/zrzyxb.20160411

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JOURNAL OF NATURAL RESOURCES ›› 2017, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (3) : 449-460. DOI: 10.11849/zrzyxb.20160411

Spatiotemporal Variation of Vegetation Coverage before and after Implementation of Grain for Green Project in the Loess Plateau

ZHAO An-zhou¹, ZHANG An-bing¹, LIU Hai-xin¹, LIU Yan-xu², WANG He-feng¹, WANG Dong-li¹

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Abstract

As an ecologically vulnerable area in China, the Loess Plateau has been indicated by many studies to have a significant increase trend in vegetation coverage. However, it is required to clarify the growing trend before and after the implementation of the Grain for Green Project. Based on the third generation of Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GIMMS NDVI3g) dataset, this study investigated the patterns of spatiotemporal variation of vegetation coverage and the possible environmental factors in the Loess Plateau during 1982-2013, 1982-1999 and 2000-2013 using the Sen+Mann-Kendall model, partial correlation analysis, Mann-Kendall test and Hurst index. The results are as follows: 1) the growing season Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of the study area increased progressively during the periods of 1982-2013, 1982-1999 and 2000-2013, with the rate of 0.019/10 a, 0.016/10 a and 0.057/10 a, respectively. 2) The growing season NDVI of five vegetation types significantly increased during the three periods, especially during 2000-2013, except the forest during 1982-1999. 3) Vegetation coverage showed a decreasing trend from southeast to northwest, and there was an abrupt decrease in the middle of the Loess Plateau. 4) The reverse characteristics of growing season NDVI change were stronger than the same characteristics in the Loess Plateau. Some 31.08% of the Loess Plateau will follow a continuous increasing trend, while 61.88% of the entire study area is predicted to decrease in future. 5) The vegetation coverage was mainly affected by climate change and human activities. Our results also indicated that increasing precipitation is a factor that results in the improvement of the vegetation coverage. In terms of human activity, our result indicted that there was a strong correlation between the cumulative afforestation area and growing season NDVI during 1999-2013.

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GIMMS NDVI3g / Grain for Green Project / Loess Plateau

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ZHAO An-zhou, ZHANG An-bing, LIU Hai-xin, LIU Yan-xu, WANG He-feng, WANG Dong-li. Spatiotemporal Variation of Vegetation Coverage before and after Implementation of Grain for Green Project in the Loess Plateau[J]. JOURNAL OF NATURAL RESOURCES, 2017, 32(3): 449-460 https://doi.org/10.11849/zrzyxb.20160411

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Funding

National High Technology Research and Development Program (“863” Program) of China, No. 2015AA123901; Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, No. D2015402134; Program of Education Department of Hebei Province, No. QN2016236, QN2015105 and QN2016234.