IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i12p4508-d186554.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of Cropland Conversion and Climate Change on Agrosystem Carbon Balance of China’s Dryland: A Typical Watershed Study

Author

Listed:
  • Chaofan Li

    (Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographic Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
    Land Science Research Center, School of Geographic Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
    State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China)

  • Qifei Han

    (Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographic Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
    Land Science Research Center, School of Geographic Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China)

  • Geping Luo

    (State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China)

  • Chengyi Zhao

    (Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disaster, School of Geographic Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
    Land Science Research Center, School of Geographic Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China)

  • Shoubo Li

    (Land Science Research Center, School of Geographic Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China)

  • Yuangang Wang

    (Housing Expropriation and Compensation Management Office, Shuimogou District of Urumqi, Urumqi 830017, China)

  • Dongsheng Yu

    (State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China)

Abstract

Remarkable warm‒wet climate shifts and intensive cropland expansion strongly affected carbon (C) cycle and threaten agricultural sustainability in northwest China. In this study, we integrated a process-based ecosystem model and an empirical C bookkeeping model to investigate the coupled and isolated effects of arable land conversions and climate change (CLM) on regional C balance in a typical watershed of northwest China. Results revealed that the farmland area increased by 3367.31 km 2 during 1979–2014. The combined effects of CLM with net cropland expansion enlarged the vegetation C (VEGC) and the soil organic C (SOC) stock by 2.83 and 11.83 Tg, respectively, and were strongest in 2008–2014. The conversions between desert grassland and cropland were the major driving forces for regional C balance. Cropland expansion shared equal effects on VEGC increase with CLM, but its effect on SOC increment was 53 times larger than CLM’s. VEGC was more responsive to CLM, whereas SOC gained more benefits from land management. The C sink from reclamation suffered from high water consumption and is facing great threats due to glaciers and mountain lake shrinking and groundwater overpumping. Water-saving irrigation techniques and environmentally friendly water use strategies are essential for local agricultural sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Chaofan Li & Qifei Han & Geping Luo & Chengyi Zhao & Shoubo Li & Yuangang Wang & Dongsheng Yu, 2018. "Effects of Cropland Conversion and Climate Change on Agrosystem Carbon Balance of China’s Dryland: A Typical Watershed Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-16, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4508-:d:186554
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4508/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4508/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhang, Chi & Li, Chaofan & Luo, Geping & Chen, Xi, 2013. "Modeling plant structure and its impacts on carbon and water cycles of the Central Asian arid ecosystem in the context of climate change," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 267(C), pages 158-179.
    2. Josep G. Canadell & E. Detlef Schulze, 2014. "Global potential of biospheric carbon management for climate mitigation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Li, L. & Luo, G. & Chen, X. & Li, Y. & Xu, G. & Xu, H. & Bai, J., 2011. "Modelling evapotranspiration in a Central Asian desert ecosystem," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(20), pages 3680-3691.
    4. Li, Chaofan & Zhang, Chi & Luo, Geping & Chen, Xi, 2013. "Modeling the carbon dynamics of the dryland ecosystems in Xinjiang, China from 1981 to 2007—The spatiotemporal patterns and climate controls," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 267(C), pages 148-157.
    5. Tobias Siegfried & Thomas Bernauer & Renaud Guiennet & Scott Sellars & Andrew Robertson & Justin Mankin & Peter Bauer-Gottwein & Andrey Yakovlev, 2012. "Will climate change exacerbate water stress in Central Asia?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 881-899, June.
    6. Annina Sorg & Tobias Bolch & Markus Stoffel & Olga Solomina & Martin Beniston, 2012. "Climate change impacts on glaciers and runoff in Tien Shan (Central Asia)," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(10), pages 725-731, October.
    7. Shilong Piao & Jingyun Fang & Philippe Ciais & Philippe Peylin & Yao Huang & Stephen Sitch & Tao Wang, 2009. "The carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems in China," Nature, Nature, vol. 458(7241), pages 1009-1013, April.
    8. Shilong Piao & Philippe Ciais & Yao Huang & Zehao Shen & Shushi Peng & Junsheng Li & Liping Zhou & Hongyan Liu & Yuecun Ma & Yihui Ding & Pierre Friedlingstein & Chunzhen Liu & Kun Tan & Yongqiang Yu , 2010. "The impacts of climate change on water resources and agriculture in China," Nature, Nature, vol. 467(7311), pages 43-51, September.
    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. Marta Bottero & Elena Comino & Federico Dell’Anna & Laura Dominici & Maurizio Rosso, 2019. "Strategic Assessment and Economic Evaluation: The Case Study of Yanzhou Island (China)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Peng Cai & Chaofan Li & Geping Luo & Chi Zhang & Friday Uchenna Ochege & Steven Caluwaerts & Lesley De Cruz & Rozemien De Troch & Sara Top & Piet Termonia & Philippe De Maeyer, 2020. "The Responses of the Ecosystems in the Tianshan North Slope under Multiple Representative Concentration Pathway Scenarios in the Middle of the 21st Century," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.

    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. Li, Zhi & Fang, Gonghuan & Chen, Yaning & Duan, Weili & Mukanov, Yerbolat, 2020. "Agricultural water demands in Central Asia under 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C global warming," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    2. Zhu, Shihua & Fang, Xia & Cao, Liangzhong & Hang, Xin & Xie, Xiaoping & Sun, Liangxiao & Li, Yachun, 2023. "Multivariate drives and their interactive effects on the ratio of transpiration to evapotranspiration over Central Asia ecosystems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 478(C).
    3. Jian Ni, 2013. "Carbon storage in Chinese terrestrial ecosystems: approaching a more accurate estimate," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 905-917, August.
    4. Huili He & Rafiq Hamdi & Geping Luo & Peng Cai & Xiuliang Yuan & Miao Zhang & Piet Termonia & Philippe Maeyer & Alishir Kurban, 2022. "The summer cooling effect under the projected restoration of Aral Sea in Central Asia," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 1-21, September.
    5. Shan Zou & Abuduwaili Jilili & Weili Duan & Philippe De Maeyer & Tim Van de Voorde, 2019. "Human and Natural Impacts on the Water Resources in the Syr Darya River Basin, Central Asia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Li, Chaofan & Zhang, Chi & Luo, Geping & Chen, Xi, 2013. "Modeling the carbon dynamics of the dryland ecosystems in Xinjiang, China from 1981 to 2007—The spatiotemporal patterns and climate controls," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 267(C), pages 148-157.
    7. Christopher White & Trevor Tanton & David Rycroft, 2014. "The Impact of Climate Change on the Water Resources of the Amu Darya Basin in Central Asia," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(15), pages 5267-5281, December.
    8. Wanlu Liu & Lulu Liu & Jiangbo Gao, 2020. "Adapting to climate change: gaps and strategies for Central Asia," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 25(8), pages 1439-1459, December.
    9. Lei Tian & Jiming Jin & Pute Wu & Guo-yue Niu, 2018. "Assessment of the Effects of Climate Change on Evapotranspiration with an Improved Elasticity Method in a Nonhumid Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Iulii Didovets & Valentina Krysanova & Aliya Nurbatsina & Bijan Fallah & Viktoriya Krylova & Assel Saparova & Jafar Niyazov & Olga Kalashnikova & Fred Fokko Hattermann, 2024. "Attribution of current trends in streamflow to climate change for 12 Central Asian catchments," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(1), pages 1-20, January.
    11. Peng Cai & Chaofan Li & Geping Luo & Chi Zhang & Friday Uchenna Ochege & Steven Caluwaerts & Lesley De Cruz & Rozemien De Troch & Sara Top & Piet Termonia & Philippe De Maeyer, 2020. "The Responses of the Ecosystems in the Tianshan North Slope under Multiple Representative Concentration Pathway Scenarios in the Middle of the 21st Century," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.
    12. Fang, Xia & Chen, Zhi & Guo, Xulin & Zhu, Shihua & Liu, Tong & Li, Chaofan & He, Biao, 2019. "Impacts and uncertainties of climate/CO2 change on net primary productivity in Xinjiang, China (2000–2014): A modelling approach," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 408(C), pages 1-1.
    13. He, Liuyue & Xu, Zhenci & Wang, Sufen & Bao, Jianxia & Fan, Yunfei & Daccache, Andre, 2022. "Optimal crop planting pattern can be harmful to reach carbon neutrality: Evidence from food-energy-water-carbon nexus perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    14. Ding, Yimin & Wang, Weiguang & Song, Ruiming & Shao, Quanxi & Jiao, Xiyun & Xing, Wanqiu, 2017. "Modeling spatial and temporal variability of the impact of climate change on rice irrigation water requirements in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 89-101.
    15. Bu, Lingduo & Chen, Xinping & Li, Shiqing & Liu, Jianliang & Zhu, Lin & Luo, Shasha & Lee Hill, Robert & Zhao, Ying, 2015. "The effect of adapting cultivars on the water use efficiency of dryland maize (Zea mays L.) in northwestern China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1-9.
    16. R. Bryson Touchstone & Kathleen Sherman-Morris, 2016. "Vulnerability to prolonged cold: a case study of the Zeravshan Valley of Tajikistan," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 83(2), pages 1279-1300, September.
    17. Wenfeng Chi & Yuanyuan Zhao & Wenhui Kuang & Tao Pan & Tu Ba & Jinshen Zhao & Liang Jin & Sisi Wang, 2021. "Impact of Cropland Evolution on Soil Wind Erosion in Inner Mongolia of China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, June.
    18. Jieming Chou & Yidan Hao & Yuan Xu & Weixing Zhao & Yuanmeng Li & Haofeng Jin, 2023. "Forest Carbon Sequestration Potential in China under Different SSP-RCP Scenarios," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-12, April.
    19. Erik Nelson & Virginia Matzek, 2016. "Carbon Credits Compete Poorly With Agricultural Commodities In An Optimized Model Of Land Use In Northern California," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(04), pages 1-24, November.
    20. Xiuliang Yuan & Jie Bai, 2018. "Future Projected Changes in Local Evapotranspiration Coupled with Temperature and Precipitation Variation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-14, September.

    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:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4508-:d:186554. 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.