Impact of land use change on carbon storage in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, China

doi:10.1007/s40333-025-0007-9

Journal of Arid Land

2025, Vol. 17

Issue (2): 167-181 DOI: 10.1007/s40333-025-0007-9 CSTR: 32276.14.JAL.02500079

Research article

Impact of land use change on carbon storage in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, China

SHI Xiaoliang¹, ZHANG Jie¹^,^*(

), LIU Simin², DING Hao¹, CHEN Xi¹, WANG Li¹, ZHANG Dan¹

¹College of Geomatics, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an 710054, China
²China National Forestry-Grassland Development Research Center, Beijing 100714, China

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Abstract

The implementation of long-term shelterbelt programs in the middle reaches of the Yellow River (MRYR), China not only has improved the overall ecological environment, but also has led to the changes of land use pattern, causing carbon storage exchanges. However, the relationship between carbon storage and land use change in the MRYR is not concerned, which results in the uncertainty in the simulation of carbon storage in this area. Land use changes directly affect the carbon storage capacity of ecosystems, and as an indicator reflecting the overall state of land use, land use degree has an important relationship with carbon storage. In this study, land use data and the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs (InVEST) model were used to assess the trends in land use degree and carbon storage in the MRYR during 1980-2020. The potential impact index and the standard deviation ellipse (SDE) algorithm were applied to quantify and analyze the characteristics of the impact of land use changes on carbon storage. Subsequently, land use transitions that led to carbon storage variations and their spatial variations were determined. The results showed that: (1) the most significant periods of carbon storage changes and land use transitions were observed during 1990-1995 and 1995-2020, with the most changed areas locating in the east of Fenhe River and in northwestern Henan Province; (2) the positive impact of land use degree on carbon storage may be related to the environmental protection measures implemented along the Yellow River, while the negative impact may be associated with the expansion of construction land in plain areas; and (3) the conversion of other land use types to grassland was the primary factor affecting carbon storage changes during 1980-2020. In future land use planning, attention should be given to the direction of grassland conversion, and focus on reasonably limiting the development of construction land. To enhance carbon storage, it will be crucial to increase the area of high-carbon-density land types, such as forest land and grassland under the condition that the area of permanent farmland does not decrease.

Key words： carbon storage land use degree integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs (InVEST) model potential impact standard deviation ellipse (SDE)

Received: 24 August 2024 Published: 28 February 2025

Corresponding Authors: *ZHANG Jie (22210010013@stu.xust.edu.cn)

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	SHI Xiaoliang
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	LIU Simin
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	CHEN Xi
	WANG Li
	ZHANG Dan

Cite this article:

SHI Xiaoliang, ZHANG Jie, LIU Simin, DING Hao, CHEN Xi, WANG Li, ZHANG Dan. Impact of land use change on carbon storage in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, China. Journal of Arid Land, 2025, 17(2): 167-181.

URL:

http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-025-0007-9 OR http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2025/V17/I2/167

Fig. 1 Land use type (a), geomorphic type (b), and implemented shelterbelt program (c) in the middle reaches of the Yellow River (MRYR), China. The images (land use type, geomorphic type, shelterbelt program, and other basic geographic features) are sourced from the Data Center for Resources and Environmental Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.resdc.cn). The map of the MRYR is sourced from the National Earth System Science Data Center (http://www.geodata.cn) and the boundary has not been modified.

Table 1 Detailed information of data

Table 2 Corrected carbon density of the middle reaches of the Yellow River (MRYR)

Fig. 2 Temporal variations of carbon storage and land use types. (a), total and mean carbon storage; (b), total area of each land use type; (c), transferred-in area of each land use type; (d), transferred-out area of each land use type.

Fig. 3 Spatial variations of land use degree (LUD; a1-a7) and carbon storage (b1-b7) in the MRYR during 1980-1990, 1990-1995, 1995-2000, 2000-2005, 2005-2010, 2010-2015, and 2015-2020

Fig. 4 Changes in major land use types and their impacts on carbon storage in the MRYR during 1990-1995 (a), 1995-2000 (b), and 1980-2020 (c)

Fig. 5 Temporal variation of potential impact (PI). (a), trend of PI; (b), oblateness of standard deviation ellipse (SDE)

Fig. 6 Spatial distribution of PI in the MRYR in 1990 (a), 1995 (b), 2000 (c), 2005 (d), 2010 (e), 2015 (f), and 2020 (g)

Fig. 7 Directional characteristic of positive PI (a) and negative PI (b)

Fig. 8 Dominant factor of land use degree during 1990-1995 (a) and 1995-2000 (b). GDP, gross domestic product.


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