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Agronomy
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The Impacts of Climate Change and Human Activities on the...
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The Impacts of Climate Change and Human Activities on the Structure and Function of Grassland Ecosystems

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Grassland and Pasture Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 October 2023) | Viewed by 3603

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yangyang Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Grassland Agriculture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Interests: vegetation dynamic remote sensing monitoring; assessment of vegetation ecological service function; ecological hydrology and carbon water cycle
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Wei Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Grassland Agriculture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Interests: grassland ecosystem restoration effect and mechanism; ecosystem carbon nitrogen water cycle and its coupling process; biodiversity and ecosystem service function
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Grassland ecosystems have ecological functions such as wind prevention, sand fixation, soil conservation, climate regulation, air purification, and water conservation, and are closely related to human survival and well-being. In recent years, with the abnormal climate change and the intensification of unreasonable human activities, the structure and function of grassland ecosystems have been seriously affected. However, the response mechanism of grassland ecosystems to climate change and human activities at different spatial and temporal scales still has great uncertainty. In this respect, it is accurate to quantitatively assess the temporal and spatial change of grassland ecosystems under the influence of climate change and human activities, clarify the change and driving mechanism of species diversity, structure and function of grassland ecosystems under changing environment, reveal the change characteristics of soil microbial diversity and function and explore the carbon and water cycle characteristics of grassland ecosystem, providing a theoretical basis for formulating grassland climate adaptation strategies. This Special Issue will offer comprehensive coverage of the impacts of climate change and human activities on the changes in the structure and function change of grassland ecosystems. We kindly invite authors to submit a review article, an original research article, or a short communication on topics related to the carbon water cycle of grassland ecosystems, plant community structure and species diversity, grassland eco-hydrology, soil microbial diversity and function and remote sensing monitoring of grassland degradation and its driving mechanism.

As Guest Editors, we look forward to reviewing your relevant contributions to this Special Issue.

Dr. Yangyang Liu
Dr. Wei Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • carbon water cycle
  • plant community structure
  • soil microbial diversity
  • grassland eco- hydrology
  • plant species diversity
  • grassland ecological service function

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 3242 KiB  
Article
Dynamic of Grassland Degradation and Its Driving Forces from Climate Variation and Human Activities in Central Asia
by Yue Yang, Mengjia Xu, Jie Sun, Jie Qiu, Wenming Pei, Kun Zhang, Xiaojuan Xu and Dong Liu
Agronomy 2023, 13(11), 2763; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13112763 - 3 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1198
Abstract
Central Asia is one of the most sensitive regions to climate changes in the world and the grassland degradation of this region has attracted considerable concern. Quantifying the driving force of grassland degradation is important for understanding the effects of climate variation and [...] Read more.
Central Asia is one of the most sensitive regions to climate changes in the world and the grassland degradation of this region has attracted considerable concern. Quantifying the driving force of grassland degradation is important for understanding the effects of climate variation and human activities on grassland. In this study, net primary productivity (NPP) was selected as an indicator to quantitatively evaluate the relative role of climate variation and human activities in Central Asia from 2000 to 2020. This study used the global NPP product MOD17A3 as actual NPP and estimated the potential NPP using the Thornthwaite memorial model. The potential NPP and the difference between the potential NPP and actual NPP were used to represent the influence of climate variation and human activities. The grassland degradation or restoration can be demonstrated by the slope of actual NPP (SA). A positive slope value (SA) suggested that restoration occurs, whereas a negative slope value suggested that degradation occurred. The results showed that 23.08% of the total grassland area experienced grassland degradation, whereas 2.51% of the whole grassland underwent grassland restoration. Furthermore, 53.8% of the degraded grassland areas were influenced by climate variation, and 14.5% were caused by human activities. By contrast, the relative roles of climate variation and human activities in grassland restoration were 25% and 47.9%, respectively. The NPP variation also could be calculated by assessing the effects of these factors and the results showed that 55.7% of the NPP decrease was caused by climate variation, whereas 9.6% was a result of human activities. On the contrary, climate variation and human activities resulted in 19.8% and 37.3% of grassland restoration, respectively. Therefore, climate variation was the dominant factor of grassland degradation, and human activities were the main driver of grassland restoration in Central Asia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impacts of Climate Change and Human Activities on the Structure and Function of Grassland Ecosystems)
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22 pages, 11695 KiB  
Article
Spatial–Temporal Dynamics of Grassland Net Primary Productivity and Its Driving Mechanisms in Northern Shaanxi, China
by Yaxian Chen, Ziqi Lin, Xu Chen, Yangyang Liu, Jinshi Jian, Wei Zhang, Peidong Han and Zijun Wang
Agronomy 2023, 13(11), 2684; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13112684 - 25 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1049
Abstract
Grasslands, a vital ecosystem and component of the global carbon cycle, play a significant role in evaluating ecosystem health and monitoring the global carbon balance. In this study, based on the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach (CASA) model, we estimated the Net Primary Productivity (NPP) of [...] Read more.
Grasslands, a vital ecosystem and component of the global carbon cycle, play a significant role in evaluating ecosystem health and monitoring the global carbon balance. In this study, based on the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach (CASA) model, we estimated the Net Primary Productivity (NPP) of grasslands in northern Shaanxi from 2000 to 2020. Employing trend analysis, stability analysis, multiple regression analysis, and residual analysis, the research examined the dynamic changes of grassland NPP and its response to climatic and human factors. Key findings include: (1) Grassland NPP showed a significant increasing trend during 2000–2020, with high-coverage grasslands showing a higher rate of increase than medium and low-coverage grasslands. (2) Most grasslands (>90%) exhibited unstable growth and high NPP fluctuation. (3) While temperature, precipitation, and radiation undulate, the trends were not significant. Rainfall and radiation emerged as dominant factors affecting NPP, with temperature suppressing NPP increase to some extent. (4) Policies like returning farmland to grassland had a positive impact on grassland recovery, vegetation productivity, and regional ecosystem health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impacts of Climate Change and Human Activities on the Structure and Function of Grassland Ecosystems)
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17 pages, 5166 KiB  
Article
Fourfold Increase in Climate Contributions to Grassland Soil Organic Carbon Variabilities and Its Policy Implications
by Wei Xue, Lijun Xu, Yingying Nie, Xinjia Wu, Yidan Yan and Liming Ye
Agronomy 2023, 13(10), 2664; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13102664 - 23 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 959
Abstract
Grassland is one of the largest terrestrial ecosystems and contains approximately 20 percent of the world’s soil organic carbon (SOC) stock. A relatively small SOC change can cause large impacts on the global climate. However, the contributions from climatic factors to SOC changes, [...] Read more.
Grassland is one of the largest terrestrial ecosystems and contains approximately 20 percent of the world’s soil organic carbon (SOC) stock. A relatively small SOC change can cause large impacts on the global climate. However, the contributions from climatic factors to SOC changes, relative to other natural and anthropogenic factors, remains controversial. Here, we evaluate the relative contributions of climate, landscape, and management factors to SOC variabilities using variance decomposition coupled with generalized additive models and resampled soil data from the original Second National Soil Survey profile locations across the temperate grasslands in northern Inner Mongolia in 2022. Our results indicate that climate contributions increased from 13.7% in the 1980s to 65.5% in 2022, compared to decreased contributions from landscape and management factors. The relative contributions from landscape and management factors decreased from 37.5% and 48.8% in the 1980s, respectively, to 19.2% and 15.4% in 2022. This shows that the climate has shifted from being a minor contributor to a primary controller of grassland SOC variability over the 40 years since the 1980s. We, therefore, argue that future grassland management and policy regimes should become climate-centric, while the current institutional momentum for grassland conservation and restoration should be maintained. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impacts of Climate Change and Human Activities on the Structure and Function of Grassland Ecosystems)
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