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The vegetation coverage on the Loess Plateau (LP) of China has clearly increased since the implementation of the Grain for Green Project in 1999, but there is a debate about whether the improved greenness was achieved at the expense of the balance between the supply and demand of water resources. Therefore, developing reliable indicators to evaluate the water availability is a prerequisite for maintaining ecological sustainability and ensuring the persistence of vegetation restoration. This study was designed to evaluate water availability on the LP during 2000–2015, using the evaporative stress index (ESI) derived from a remote sensing dataset. The relative dependences of the ESI on climatic and biological factors (including temperature, precipitation and land cover change) were also analyzed. The results showed that the leaf area index (LAI) in most regions of the LP showed a significant increasing trend (p< 0.05), and larger gradients of increase were mainly detected in the central and eastern parts of the LP. The evapotranspiration also exhibited an increasing trend in the central and eastern parts of the LP, with a gradient greater than 10 mm/year. However, almost the whole LP exhibited a decreased ESI from 2000 to 2015, and the largest decrease occurred on the central and eastern LP, indicating a wetting trend. The soil moisture storage in the 0–289-cm soil profiles showed an increasing trend in the central and eastern LP, and the area with an upward trend enlarged with the soil depth. Further analysis revealed that the decreased ESI on the central and eastern LP mainly depended on the increase in the LAI compared with climatic influences. This work not only demonstrated that the ESI was a useful indicator for understanding the water availability in natural and managed ecosystems under climate change but also indicated that vegetation restoration might have a positive effect on water conservation on the central LP.
Linjing Qiu; Yuting Chen; Yiping Wu; Qingyue Xue; Zhaoyang Shi; Xiaohui Lei; Weihong Liao; Fubo Zhao; Wenke Wang. The Water Availability on the Chinese Loess Plateau since the Implementation of the Grain for Green Project as Indicated by the Evaporative Stress Index. Remote Sensing 2021, 13, 3302 .
AMA StyleLinjing Qiu, Yuting Chen, Yiping Wu, Qingyue Xue, Zhaoyang Shi, Xiaohui Lei, Weihong Liao, Fubo Zhao, Wenke Wang. The Water Availability on the Chinese Loess Plateau since the Implementation of the Grain for Green Project as Indicated by the Evaporative Stress Index. Remote Sensing. 2021; 13 (16):3302.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLinjing Qiu; Yuting Chen; Yiping Wu; Qingyue Xue; Zhaoyang Shi; Xiaohui Lei; Weihong Liao; Fubo Zhao; Wenke Wang. 2021. "The Water Availability on the Chinese Loess Plateau since the Implementation of the Grain for Green Project as Indicated by the Evaporative Stress Index." Remote Sensing 13, no. 16: 3302.
Quantitatively identifying the influences of vegetation restoration (VR) on water resources is crucial to ecological planning. Although vegetation coverage has improved on the Loess Plateau (LP) of China since the implementation of VR policy, the way vegetation dynamics influences regional evapotranspiration (ET) remains controversial. In this study, we first investigate long-term spatiotemporal trends of total ET (TET) components, including ground evaporation (GE) and canopy ET (CET, sum of canopy interception and canopy transpiration) based on the GLEAM-ET dataset. The ET changes are attributed to VR on the LP from 2000 to 2015 and these results are quantitatively evaluated here using the Community Land Model (CLM). Finally, the relative contributions of VR and climate change to ET are identified by combining climate scenarios and VR scenarios. The results show that the positive effect of VR on CET is offset by the negative effect of VR on GE, which results in a weak variation in TET at an annual scale and an increased TET is only shown in summer. Regardless of the representative concentration pathway (RCP4.5 or RCP8.5), differences resulted from the responses of TET to different vegetation conditions ranging from −3.7 to −1.2 mm, while climate change from RCP4.5 to RCP8.5 caused an increase in TET ranging from 0.1 to 65.3 mm. These findings imply that climate change might play a dominant role in ET variability on the LP, and this work emphasizes the importance of comprehensively considering the interactions among climate factors to assess the relative contributions of VR and climate change to ET.
Linjing Qiu; Yiping Wu; Zhaoyang Shi; Yuting Chen; Fubo Zhao. Quantifying the Responses of Evapotranspiration and Its Components to Vegetation Restoration and Climate Change on the Loess Plateau of China. Remote Sensing 2021, 13, 2358 .
AMA StyleLinjing Qiu, Yiping Wu, Zhaoyang Shi, Yuting Chen, Fubo Zhao. Quantifying the Responses of Evapotranspiration and Its Components to Vegetation Restoration and Climate Change on the Loess Plateau of China. Remote Sensing. 2021; 13 (12):2358.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLinjing Qiu; Yiping Wu; Zhaoyang Shi; Yuting Chen; Fubo Zhao. 2021. "Quantifying the Responses of Evapotranspiration and Its Components to Vegetation Restoration and Climate Change on the Loess Plateau of China." Remote Sensing 13, no. 12: 2358.