IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v12y2023i11p2009-d1272978.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Anthropogenic Activities and Natural Factors on the Grassland over the Agro-Pastoral Ecotone of Inner Mongolia

Author

Listed:
  • Feinan Lyu

    (College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China)

  • Ying Pan

    (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

  • LinJun Yu

    (Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

  • Xiang Wang

    (College of Horticulture, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China)

  • Zhenrong Yu

    (College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China)

Abstract

The agro-pastoral ecotone serves as an important ecological transition zone between grassland and cropland. It plays a crucial role in providing forage and maintaining the ecological security of Northern China. China has initiated many ecological restoration projects in the agro-pastoral ecotone. Separating the affecting factors of anthropogenic activities and natural factors change on grassland may help guide future ecological restoration projects. This study investigated the grassland change over the agro-pastoral ecotone in Inner Mongolia (APEI) using land use data, vegetation index, and monthly climate data, social and economic data from 2010 to 2020. Two indicators were introduced to evaluate the grassland change in quality and quantity. The average annual maximum NDVI of grassland within each sample was used as a proxy for grassland quality, and the proportion of grassland within each sample was used as a proxy for grassland quantity. The driving mechanisms of grassland quality were examined on different types of grassland. The results showed that (1) from 2010 to 2020, the quantity of grassland in APEI slightly decreased while the quality of the grassland significantly improved; (2) the change in grassland quality was jointly caused by natural factors and human activities, with 66.77% being attributed to natural factors and 33.23% to human activities. In some areas, the alteration in grassland quality was solely determined by either the impacts of natural factors or human-induced disturbances; and (3) temperature and precipitation played different roles in affecting grassland quality among different types of grassland. In some areas, anthropogenic activities, such as farmland and population, would affect grassland quality. The findings of this study would contribute to the understanding of the mechanism of ecological environmental changes in the agro-pastoral ecotone and guide the planning and implementation of future ecological restoration projects in agro-pastoral areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Feinan Lyu & Ying Pan & LinJun Yu & Xiang Wang & Zhenrong Yu, 2023. "The Impact of Anthropogenic Activities and Natural Factors on the Grassland over the Agro-Pastoral Ecotone of Inner Mongolia," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-19, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:11:p:2009-:d:1272978
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/11/2009/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/11/2009/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yuejuan Yang & Kun Wang & Di Liu & Xinquan Zhao & Jiangwen Fan & Jinsheng Li & Xiajie Zhai & Cong Zhang & Ruyi Zhan, 2019. "Spatiotemporal Variation Characteristics of Ecosystem Service Losses in the Agro-Pastoral Ecotone of Northern China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-23, April.
    2. Zhang, MunkhDalai A. & Borjigin, Elles & Zhang, Huiping, 2007. "Mongolian nomadic culture and ecological culture: On the ecological reconstruction in the agro-pastoral mosaic zone in Northern China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 19-26, April.
    3. Zheng, Xinyi & Zhang, Junze & Cao, Shixiong, 2018. "Net value of grassland ecosystem services in mainland China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 94-101.
    4. Xing, Chunbing & Zhang, Junfu, 2017. "The preference for larger cities in China: Evidence from rural-urban migrants," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 72-90.
    5. Lingling Hou & Fang Xia & Qihui Chen & Jikun Huang & Yong He & Nathan Rose & Scott Rozelle, 2021. "Grassland ecological compensation policy in China improves grassland quality and increases herders’ income," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiaru Wu & Peng Han & Jiwu Zhai & Qing Zhang, 2024. "Innovative Perspectives on Ecological Assessment in the Agro-Pastoral Ecotone of Inner Mongolia: An Integrated Evaluation and Forecast of Landscape and Ecological Risks and Drivers," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shrestha, Kripa & Shakya, Bandana & Adhikari, Biraj & Nepal, Mani & Shaoliang, Yi, 2023. "Ecosystem services valuation for conservation and development decisions: A review of valuation studies and tools in the Far Eastern Himalaya," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    2. GAO Tianming & Anna Ivolga & Vasilii Erokhin, 2018. "Sustainable Rural Development in Northern China: Caught in a Vice between Poverty, Urban Attractions, and Migration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-20, May.
    3. Fei Duan & Siyu Wen & Xuening Fan & Jiacheng Li & Ran Zhou & Jiansheng Wu & Chengcheng Dong, 2025. "Simulation of Multi-Scale Water Supply Service Flow Pathways and Ecological Compensation for Urban–Rural Sustainability: A Case Study of the Fenhe River Basin," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-21, March.
    4. Zilin Zhou & Feng Cheng & Jinliang Wang & Bangjin Yi, 2023. "A Study on the Impact of Roads on Grassland Degradation in Shangri-La City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-16, May.
    5. Xin Nie & Jianxian Wu & Han Wang & Weijuan Li & Chengdao Huang & Lihua Li, 2022. "Contributing to carbon peak: Estimating the causal impact of eco‐industrial parks on low‐carbon development in China," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(4), pages 1578-1593, August.
    6. Shuting Bai & Jiuchun Yang & Yubo Zhang & Fengqin Yan & Lingxue Yu & Shuwen Zhang, 2022. "Evaluating Ecosystem Services and Trade-Offs Based on Land-Use Simulation: A Case Study in the Farming–Pastoral Ecotone of Northern China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-17, July.
    7. Carlos Garriga & Aaron Hedlund & Yang Tang & Ping Wang, 2023. "Rural-Urban Migration, Structural Transformation, and Housing Markets in China," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 413-440, April.
    8. Qinghu Liao & Wenwen Dong & Boxin Zhao, 2023. "A New Strategy to Solve “the Tragedy of the Commons” in Sustainable Grassland Ecological Compensation: Experience from Inner Mongolia, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-24, June.
    9. Zhipeng Gao & Zhenyu Wang & Mi Zhou, 2023. "Is China’s Urbanization Inclusive?—Comparative Research Based on Machine Learning Algorithms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-16, February.
    10. Gao, Yuan & Yu, Lu, 2024. "Understanding the impacts of ecological compensation policies on energy poverty: insights from forest communities in Zhejiang, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    11. Guangliang Yang & Lixing Li & Shihe Fu, 2020. "Do rural migrants benefit from labor market agglomeration economies? Evidence from Chinese cities," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 910-931, September.
    12. Jiang, Lu & Xue, Bing & Xing, Ran & Chen, Xingpeng & Song, Lan & Wang, Yutao & Coffman, D’Maris & Mi, Zhifu, 2020. "Rural household energy consumption of farmers and herders in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    13. Zhiling Wang & Lu Chen, 2019. "Destination choices of Chinese rural–urban migrant workers: Jobs, amenities, and local spillovers," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 586-609, June.
    14. Xubei Luo & Nong Zhu, 2022. "Migration, Agglomeration and Attractiveness of Cities in China," Working Papers hal-03606056, HAL.
    15. Ming Tian & Zheng Tian & Brian Cushing, 2016. "Inter-city migration in China: a recurrent-event duration analysis of repeat migration," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 9(3), pages 551-569.
    16. Xinhao Suo & Shixiong Cao, 2021. "China’s three north shelter forest program: cost–benefit analysis and policy implications," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(10), pages 14605-14618, October.
    17. Meng, Lei, 2020. "Permanent migration desire of Chinese rural residents: Evidence from field surveys, 2006–2015," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    18. Lishuo Shi & Wen Chen & Jiaqi Xu & Li Ling, 2020. "Trends and Characteristics of Inter-Provincial Migrants in Mainland China and Its Relation with Economic Factors: A Panel Data Analysis from 2011 to 2016," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, January.
    19. Zhe Cheng & Tianyu Zhao & Tao Song & Li Cui & Xinfa Zhou, 2022. "Assessing the Spatio-Temporal Pattern and Development Characteristics of Regional Ecological Resources for Sustainable Development: A Case Study on Guizhou Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-18, June.
    20. Xinwen Lin & Angathevar Baskaran & Yajie Zhang, 2023. "Watershed Horizontal Ecological Compensation Policy and Green Ecological City Development: Spatial and Mechanism Assessment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-21, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:11:p:2009-:d:1272978. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.