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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (12): 1-13.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2023058

   

Ecological value and its spatiotemporal dynamic patterns of grassland in China

Jia-hui LI1,2(), Lin HUANG3(), Jiang-wen FAN3   

  1. 1.State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System,Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China
    2.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China
    3.Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation,Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China
  • Received:2023-02-21 Revised:2023-03-09 Online:2023-12-20 Published:2023-10-18
  • Contact: Lin HUANG

Abstract:

As China’s largest terrestrial ecosystem and one of the important natural resources, grasslands provide a series of ecosystem services which contribute to human well-being. However, there are still wide expanses of grassland suffering from various degrees of degradation, and requiring urgent conservation and restoration action to improve their quality, function and stability. Accounting of grassland ecological value provides an effective means to monitor the changes in and assess the combined importance of multiple grassland ecosystem functions. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal evolution of grassland ecological value in China from 2000 to 2020. It then assessed the spatiotemporal dynamics of the value of key ecological services of grasslands, including windbreak and sand fixation, water conservation, forage supply and carbon sequestration. Next, adaptation strategies for optimizing and enhancing the grassland ecological value in China were proposed. It was found that in 2020, the ecological value of China’s grassland was 2.47×104 billion CNY, and the value was 7.6 million CNY·km-2, among which the value per unit area of windbreak and sand fixation and species richness maintenance were relatively high, accounting for 27.3% and 25.8% of the total, respectively. In the past 20 years, more than 90% of China’s grassland area has shown an increasing trend in ecological value. This applies especially to grassland located on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, the northern Loess Plateau, and the eastern and central parts of Inner Mongolia indicate a rapid growth. Moreover, the sum of grassland ecological values of Mongolia, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan and Xinjiang accounted for about 67.4% of China’s total ecological value. In the past 20 years, Shaanxi, Beijing, Ningxia, Tianjin, and Shanxi showed a relatively high growth rate in grassland ecological value (>65%). Finally, China’s grasslands were divided into three categories and twelve subcategories, based on grassland protection and restoration strategies focusing on different key ecological services. Our study offers significant insights for assigning various protection and restoration priorities to achieve sustainable growth in grassland ecological value.

Key words: grassland, ecological value, temporal and spatial changes, optimization and promotion strategies, China