Climate Change Impacts on Vegetation Dynamics in China Revealed

A new study on climate change has provided insights into the profound changes terrestrial ecosystems have experienced due to the combined influence of climate change and human activities in China. The research, supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and other organizations, aimed to understand the contributions of climatic factors and human activities to vegetation dynamics and their differences among ecosystem types. The study used data from 2001 to 2022 to map vegetation dynamics and analyze the relative contributions of climate and human activities to changes in vegetation. The results showed that China's average vegetation index exhibited an overall increasing trend, with 4.7% of the area showing degradation. The study also found that urban and cultivated land ecosystems had larger degraded areas, while mixed farmland and pastureland ecosystems had larger greening areas.

Key Takeaways:

• The study revealed that terrestrial ecosystems in China have experienced profound changes due to climate change and human activities, leading to local degradation of vegetation and ecosystem services.
• The contributions of climatic factors and human activities to vegetation dynamics and their differences among ecosystem types remain largely unknown, compromising the scientific basis for type-differentiated sustainable management.
• China's average vegetation index exhibited an overall increasing trend of 0.16% per annum, with 4.7% of the area showing degradation.
• Urban and cultivated land ecosystems had larger degraded areas (19.1% and 3.2%), while mixed farmland and pastureland ecosystems had larger greening areas (81.1% and 78.0%).
• The study found that precipitation and human activities were the dominant factors influencing vegetation changes, with contribution rates of more than 40% and 25% respectively.
• The impacts of climate changes on vegetation in artificial or semiartificial ecosystems were more stable than that in natural ecosystems, indicating that natural ecosystems are more vulnerable to human disturbance.
• Sustainable ecosystem management strategies such as ecological protection and restoration and protected area construction should pay attention to type- and regional-differentiated underlying mechanisms.

Statistics:

• China's average vegetation index exhibited an overall increasing trend of 0.16% per annum from 2001 to 2022.
• 4.7% of the area in China showed degradation.
• Urban and cultivated land ecosystems had degraded areas of 19.1% and 3.2% respectively.
• Mixed farmland and pastureland ecosystems had greening areas of 81.1% and 78.0% respectively.
• Precipitation and human activities contributed more than 40% and 25% to vegetation changes respectively.
• Temperature and solar radiation contributed generally below 10% to vegetation changes across all ecosystems.

Sources:

• Habitat International, 2025;162.
• Yaqun Liu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, 11A Datun Rd, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China.
• National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), National Key Research & Development Program of China, Open Collaboration Fund of State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization.