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Drivers and impacts of changes in China’s drylands

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 2, pages 858–873 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

China has 6.6 million km2 of drylands that support approximately 580 million people. These drylands are at risk of desertification. In this Review, the changes observed in China’s drylands are synthesized, with a focus on their drivers and the effects of 13 large-scale land conservation and restoration programmes aimed at mitigating them, including the Three-North Shelterbelt Development Program and Grain for Green Program. After the implementation of the first large-scale restoration programme in 1978, 45.76% of China’s drylands experienced statistically significant land improvement or vegetation greenness, as identified by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. However, activities associated with restoration and conservation projects, such as afforestation, also impose substantial water pressure. Desertification thus remained prevalent during 1980–2015, with 11.43% drylands (especially in north-eastern and north-western drylands) experiencing land degradation or vegetation brownness. Drylands remain at risk of expansion owing to increasing aridity, particularly in semi-arid areas. Future trade-offs between the effects of CO2 fertilization and increased aridity on dryland vegetation cover are still poorly understood. Long-term experiments on the interactions between physical–chemical–biological processes across spatial and temporal scales, such as large-scale field surveys using standardized protocols, are needed to better manage drylands in China and globally.

Key points

  • China has 6.6 million km2 of drylands, which are at risk of expansion owing to increased aridity, potentially affecting the livelihoods of 580 million people.

  • Wind, water and freeze–thaw erosion emerge as major active desertification processes; wind erosion is most serious, with rates exceeding 5,000 tonnes km−2 year−1.

  • China has implemented large-scale land conservation and restoration programmes to combat desertification, greening the drylands. However, large-scale ecological restoration projects also impose substantial pressure on these water-limited environments.

  • From 1980 to 2015, 45.76% of China’s drylands experienced notable land improvement, whereas 11.43% underwent desertification.

  • Plant species richness has positive effects on dryland ecosystem functioning, particularly on plant productivity and soil carbon content.

  • Research is needed to examine interactions between different drivers of environmental change, particularly investigating relationships between CO2 fertilization and increased aridity.

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Fig. 1: Distribution and characteristics of China’s drylands.
Fig. 2: Dryland ecosystem change in China.
Fig. 3: Feedback in dryland ecosystems.
Fig. 4: Thirteen major dryland conservation and restoration programmes in China.
Fig. 5: Dryland ecosystem shifts, water fluxes and ecosystem services.
Fig. 6: Spatial variations in climatic and hydrological change.

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Acknowledgements

This research is jointly funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (grant 41991235), China’s Second Scientific Research Project on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (grant 2019QZKK0405) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2019NTST33).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Changjia Li, Bojie Fu, Shuai Wang, Yaping Wang, Zidong Li, Yanxu Liu & Wenxin Zhou

  2. Institute of Land Surface System and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Changjia Li, Bojie Fu, Shuai Wang, Yaping Wang, Zidong Li, Yanxu Liu & Wenxin Zhou

  3. Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York, UK

    Lindsay C. Stringer

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  1. Changjia Li
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Contributions

C.L., B.F., S.W. and L.C.S. formulated the review and identified the themes to be covered. C.L. drafted the figures and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Y.W. Z.L., Y.L. and W.Z conducted data analysis of land degradation in China’s drylands. B.F., S.W. and L.C.S. reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission. All authors made substantial contributions to the discussion of content.

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Correspondence to Bojie Fu.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Reviews Earth & Environment thanks J. Huang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Glossary

Desertification

A type of land degradation in drylands induced by climatic variations and human activities.

Ecological security

The capability of an ecosystem to maintain its stability under external stress.

Aridity index

The mean annual precipitation divided by potential evapotranspiration.

Aridification

A long-term process that drives increasing dryness.

Soil erosion modulus

An indicator to describe the soil erosion rate per square kilometre per year.

Sandification

An environmental change whereby an environment becomes sandy.

Habitat quality

An indicator that approximates the biodiversity of a landscape through estimating the extent of habit, vegetation types and their degradation states.

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Li, C., Fu, B., Wang, S. et al. Drivers and impacts of changes in China’s drylands. Nat Rev Earth Environ 2, 858–873 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-021-00226-z

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