Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
6.4
3.5
Journals
Land
Special Issues
Global Change and Vulnerable Land Ecosystems: Integrated Vegetation–Hydrology–Climate Responses and...
share announcement

Global Change and Vulnerable Land Ecosystems: Integrated Vegetation–Hydrology–Climate Responses and Policy Implications for Sustainable Land Governance

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Systems and Global Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 November 2026 | Viewed by 1816

Editors

Dr. Panxing He

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China
Interests: drought; atmospheric drought; land–atmosphere feedback, ecological engineering; theoretical ecology
Dr. Jianhua Xiao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Interests: sand control project; sand disaster prevention; dust emission; aeolian sand-flow dynamics; eco-industrial system optimization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Haijun Deng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geography, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, China
Interests: hydrology modeling; climate change; water resources; hydrology cycles
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jiejie Sun

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Jiangmen Laboratory of Carbon Science and Technology, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Jiangmen 529199, China
Interests: climate change; global change; global ecosystem ecology; global change ecology; agro-ecology; forest ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Vulnerable land ecosystems, such as drylands, alpine regions, coastal zones, and ecologically fragile transitional areas, are highly sensitive to global environmental change. Ongoing climate warming, altered precipitation regimes, increasing climate extremes, and intensified human activities have significantly affected vegetation dynamics, hydrological processes, and land–atmosphere interactions in these ecosystems. Changes in vegetation cover and productivity directly influence water cycling, surface energy balance, and ecosystem stability, while hydrological variability and climate feedbacks further regulate land degradation and ecosystem vulnerability. Despite substantial progress, large uncertainties remain regarding the integrated responses and feedback mechanisms between vegetation, hydrology, and climate across spatial and temporal scales. Addressing these knowledge gaps is essential for understanding land systems’ dynamics and supporting sustainable land management in the context of global change.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect high-quality original research articles and review papers that provide new insights into vegetation, hydrology, and the responses of vulnerable land ecosystems to global climate change. This topic closely aligns with the scope of Land, which emphasizes land systems, land–environment interactions, land degradation, and sustainable land management. By integrating multidisciplinary perspectives, this Special Issue aims to advance the assessment of ecosystem responses and inform land use planning, ecological restoration, and climate adaptation strategies.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

  • Vegetation dynamics, productivity, and phenological responses to climate change;
  • Hydrological processes, water availability, and ecohydrological interactions in vulnerable land ecosystems;
  • Land–atmosphere interactions and climate feedbacks;
  • Remote sensing and the modeling of vegetation, hydrology, and climate responses;
  • Impacts of climate extremes (e.g., droughts, heatwaves, and floods) on land ecosystems;
  • Human activities, land-use change, and ecosystem vulnerability;
  • Implications for sustainable land management, restoration, and policy.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Panxing He
Dr. Jianhua Xiao
Dr. Haijun Deng
Dr. Jiejie Sun
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land 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

  • vulnerable land ecosystems
  • vegetation responses
  • hydrological processes
  • climate change
  • land–atmosphere interactions

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

29 pages, 6373 KB  
Article
Chain Decomposition Reveals Precipitation-Sensitive Patterns of Ecosystem Carbon–Water Coupling in Karst and Non-Karst Landscapes of Southwest China
by Yutao He, Shaodong Qu, Suihua Liu and Man Li
Land 2026, 15(7), 1243; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15071243 - 10 Jul 2026
Viewed by 278
Abstract
Precipitation use efficiency (PUE) links ecosystem carbon uptake to precipitation input, but endpoint ratios alone cannot show where carbon–water coupling differs along ecohydrological pathways. This limitation is especially relevant in karst landscapes, where thin soils and heterogeneous hydrological pathways can decouple rainfall, soil [...] Read more.
Precipitation use efficiency (PUE) links ecosystem carbon uptake to precipitation input, but endpoint ratios alone cannot show where carbon–water coupling differs along ecohydrological pathways. This limitation is especially relevant in karst landscapes, where thin soils and heterogeneous hydrological pathways can decouple rainfall, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and plant carbon gain. Here, we developed a PUE chain decomposition framework based on gross primary productivity (GPP), transpiration (T), evapotranspiration (ET), soil moisture (SM), and precipitation (PRE): PUE = GPP/T × T/ET × ET/SM × SM/PRE. In this framework, GPP/T represents carbon fixation per unit transpiration, T/ET the transpiration fraction of evapotranspiration, ET/SM evapotranspiration output relative to soil moisture, and SM/PRE soil moisture status relative to precipitation input. We used multi-source remote-sensing and reanalysis data from 2003 to 2022 to compare karst and non-karst landscapes in Southwest China, applied variance decomposition to quantify the contributions of chain terms and their interactions, and used Stacking ensemble learning with Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) to interpret model-inferred environmental associations. Mean PUE was 1.16 g C m−2 mm−1 in non-karst areas and 1.08 g C m−2 mm−1 in karst areas, and all four chain components differed significantly between landform types. Variance decomposition identified SM/PRE and its interaction terms as the largest contributors to PUE variability, mainly reflecting a precipitation-sensitive diagnostic signal and soil moisture status relative to precipitation input. Machine learning interpretation showed that solar radiation, leaf area index, aridity, and groundwater storage were associated with different chain components; karst areas showed stronger groundwater-storage signals and lower model-inferred response thresholds. These findings indicate that PUE differences in Southwest China arise from multiple linked diagnostic stages rather than from endpoint carbon uptake or precipitation alone. The framework can help locate water-use constraints and support landform-specific ecological restoration and water management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Global Change and Vulnerable Land Ecosystems: Integrated Vegetation–Hydrology–Climate Responses and Policy Implications for Sustainable Land Governance)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 1041 KB  
Article
Monitoring Meteorological and Hydrological Droughts at a Daily Scale: Simple Physical Models and Derived Indexes
by Dian Yuan and Er Lu
Land 2026, 15(7), 1195; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15071195 - 2 Jul 2026
Viewed by 250
Abstract
The day-to-day monitoring of drought is required by decision-makers. Treating flood/drought as an instantaneous state, we have developed a physical model to describe the time change in the state, and proposed the derived WAP (Weighted Average of Precipitation) index, which uses precipitation only [...] Read more.
The day-to-day monitoring of drought is required by decision-makers. Treating flood/drought as an instantaneous state, we have developed a physical model to describe the time change in the state, and proposed the derived WAP (Weighted Average of Precipitation) index, which uses precipitation only and monitors meteorological drought. Evaporation is implicitly included in the model as one of the dissipation components. In the present study, we modify the model to express evaporation explicitly, making the “flood extent” forced by both precipitation and evaporation. The derived WAPE index serves as a water-balance-based drought indicator that reflects the day-to-day variation in moisture conditions, with particular emphasis on soil drying processes. Compared with WAP, WAPE captures further changes in drought extent during dry periods, corresponding to soil moisture evolution. The WAPE reasonably describes two real physical processes: (1) during dry spells with strong evaporation, drought tends to be aggravated; and (2) when local drought is severe and evaporation weakens, drought may be locally mitigated due to the restoring force from horizontal and vertical soil moisture gradients. The daily-resolution and physically based nature of the WAPE index also suggests its potential applicability to the identification and dynamic monitoring of flash droughts under climate warming. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Global Change and Vulnerable Land Ecosystems: Integrated Vegetation–Hydrology–Climate Responses and Policy Implications for Sustainable Land Governance)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 4959 KB  
Article
Evolution of Ecological Vulnerability and Scenario Simulations in the Yellow River Source Region Under Climate Change
by Wei Liu, Xiaozhen Gao, Weijing Ma and Meng Zhu
Land 2026, 15(6), 999; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15060999 - 6 Jun 2026
Viewed by 343
Abstract
Amid accelerating global environmental change, assessing ecological vulnerability is critical for sustainability science. Focusing on the Yellow River Source Region (YRSR)—a key water source and ecological shield in China—this study develops an integrated assessment system based on the “Pressure–State–Response” (PSR) framework, incorporating 29 [...] Read more.
Amid accelerating global environmental change, assessing ecological vulnerability is critical for sustainability science. Focusing on the Yellow River Source Region (YRSR)—a key water source and ecological shield in China—this study develops an integrated assessment system based on the “Pressure–State–Response” (PSR) framework, incorporating 29 indicators. A combined weighting approach integrating analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with entropy-based objective weighting characterizes the spatiotemporal patterns, drivers, and future trajectories of ecological vulnerability. Key findings reveal: (1) heterogeneous warming–wetting trends with stronger humidification in the south and relative stability in the north drive divergent hydrological responses, highlighting the limitations of single-climate metrics in explaining vulnerability dynamics; (2) vulnerability patterns are primarily shaped by climatic factors—especially temperature and potential evapotranspiration—with anthropogenic pressures serving as secondary modulators, reinforcing the foundational role of thermal and moisture regimes in alpine ecosystem resilience; and (3) scenario projections consistently identify the northeast as a persistently high-vulnerability zone, yet show that balanced socioeconomic development can reconcile ecological protection with development needs. Based on these insights, a four-tier ecological zoning scheme and a governance framework comprising three strategies—strict conservation, adaptive regulation, and sustainable utilization—are proposed. This work offers actionable scientific guidance for tailored ecological conservation in the YRSR and contributes methodological advancements for vulnerability assessment and adaptive management of high-elevation ecosystems globally. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Global Change and Vulnerable Land Ecosystems: Integrated Vegetation–Hydrology–Climate Responses and Policy Implications for Sustainable Land Governance)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 53399 KB  
Article
Irrigation Reshapes Vegetation Dynamics and Their Environmental Controls in the Hetao Irrigation District Watershed, Inner Mongolia, China
by Xiaolong Zhou, Meng He, Xin Tong, Tingxi Liu, Limin Duan, Xiaoyan Liu, Jiaxin Li, Jianxun Ji, Guangyan Zhu and Vijay P. Singh
Land 2026, 15(5), 892; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15050892 - 21 May 2026
Viewed by 334
Abstract
The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is widely used to track vegetation cover and ecological change. However, in arid watersheds where irrigated farmland and natural vegetation coexist, it remains unclear how irrigation changes the relative effects of climate, terrain, and soil on vegetation [...] Read more.
The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is widely used to track vegetation cover and ecological change. However, in arid watersheds where irrigated farmland and natural vegetation coexist, it remains unclear how irrigation changes the relative effects of climate, terrain, and soil on vegetation growth. Using the Hetao irrigation district watershed in Inner Mongolia, this study analyzed NDVI dynamics and their environmental controls from 2001 to 2024 through trend analysis, spatial autocorrelation, XGBoost-SHAP, GeoDetector, and geographically weighted regression. NDVI increased significantly across the watershed at 0.0035 yr−1, but the increase was much stronger inside the irrigation district (mean NDVI = 0.58; slope = 0.0061 yr−1) than outside it (mean NDVI = 0.26; slope = 0.0015 yr−1). Global Moran’s I values remained above 0.86, showing persistent spatial clustering. The main drivers also differed by zone. DEM, SOC, and precipitation were most important for the whole watershed; SOC, TP, pH, and TN were more important inside the irrigation district; and precipitation and DEM were more important outside it. GeoDetector confirmed that paired drivers strengthened each other, including SOC ∩ DEM at the watershed scale and DEM ∩ TP outside the irrigation district. GWR further showed that rainfall effects were stronger outside the irrigation boundary, while soil-related effects were stronger in the irrigated agricultural belt. These results show that irrigation not only increases NDVI but also changes how vegetation responds to environmental conditions by weakening direct rainfall limitation and strengthening soil-related controls in managed landscapes. The findings provide evidence for zone-specific vegetation restoration and land-water management in dryland irrigation watersheds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Global Change and Vulnerable Land Ecosystems: Integrated Vegetation–Hydrology–Climate Responses and Policy Implications for Sustainable Land Governance)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop