Quantitative Assessment of the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) in the Coastal Areas of Jiangsu, China

Global increases in population and consumption have raised concerns regarding the sustainability of the current and future use of natural resources. The human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) provides a useful measure for determining human-derived alterations in the amount of biomass that is available in ecosystems each year. HANPP was calculated based on vegetation modelling, agricultural statistics, and remote sensing data on land use and land cover to assess the human impacts on ecosystems in the coastal areas of Jiangsu, China. The results showed that HANPP increased from 332 g·C/m²/year in 2000 to 442 g·C/m²/year in 2010, with an average annual increase of 2.9%. The proportion of appropriated net primary production increased from 50.3% to 71.0% of NPP_pot, mainly driven by HANPP_harv (harvested NPP) with an increase from 45.2% to 61.3% of NPP_pot. Additionally, the spatial variation in average HANPP was striking among counties in the observed period with the lowest and highest values of 21.8% and 63.8% of NPP_pot, respectively. Further analysis showed that observed levels of HANPP are high due to a high level of biomass harvest from cropland and the increases in fertilizer use, farmland irrigation rate and population and economic growth explain the trends in HANPP in the coastal areas of Jiangsu.