Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Feedbacks between vegetation restoration and local precipitation over the Loess Plateau in China

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
Science China Earth Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The implementation of large-scale vegetation restoration over the Chinese Loess Plateau has achieved clear improvements in vegetation fraction, as evidenced by large areas of slopes and plains being restored to grassland or forest. However, such large-scale vegetation restoration has altered land-atmosphere exchanges of water and energy, as the land surface characteristics have changed. These variations could affect regional climate, especially local precipitation. Quantitatively evaluating this feedback is an important scientific question in hydrometeorology. This study constructs a coupled land-atmosphere model incorporating vegetation dynamics, and analyzes the spatio-temporal changes of different land use types and land surface parameters over the Loess Plateau. By considering the impacts of vegetation restoration on the water-energy cycle and on land-atmosphere interactions, we quantified the feedback effect of vegetation restoration on local precipitation across the Loess Plateau, and discussed the important underlying processes. To achieve a quantitative evaluation, we designed two simulation experiments, comprising a real scenario with vegetation restoration and a hypothetical scenario without vegetation restoration. These enabled a comparison and analysis of the net impact of vegetation restoration on local precipitation. The results show that vegetation restoration had a positive effect on local precipitation over the Loess Plateau. Observations show that precipitation on the Loess Plateau increased significantly, at a rate of 7.84 mm yr−2, from 2000 to 2015. The simulations show that the contribution of large-scale vegetation restoration to the precipitation increase was about 37.4%, while external atmospheric circulation changes beyond the Loess Plateau contributed the other 62.6%. The average annual precipitation under the vegetation restoration scenario over the Loess Plateau was 12.4% higher than that under the scenario without vegetation restoration. The above research results have important theoretical and practical significance for the ecological protection and optimal development of the Loess Plateau, as well as the sustainable management of vegetation restoration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bao J, Feng J, Wang Y. 2015. Dynamical downscaling simulation and future projection of precipitation over China. J Geophys Res Atmos, 120: 8227–8243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen Y P, Wang K B, Lin Y S, Shi W Y, Song Y, He X H. 2015. Balancing green and grain trade. Nat Geosci, 8: 739–741

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen Y, Yang K, He J, Qin J, Shi J, Du J, He Q. 2011. Improving land surface temperature modeling for dry land of China. J Geophys Res, 116: D20104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen F, Mitchell K, Schaake J, Xue Y, Pan H L, Koren V, Duan Q Y, Ek M, Betts A. 1996. Modeling of land surface evaporation by four schemes and comparison with FIFE observations. J Geophys Res, 101: 7251–7268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dudhia J. 1993. A nonhydrostatic version of the Penn State-NCAR mesoscale model: Validation tests and simulation of an Atlantic cyclone and cold front. Mon Wea Rev, 121: 1493–1513

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emmanouil G, Vlachogiannis D, Sfetsos A. 2021. Exploring the ability of the WRF-ARW atmospheric model to simulate different meteorological conditions in Greece. Atmos Res, 247: 105226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ESA. 2017. Land Cover CCI Product User Guide Version 2. Technical Report

  • Feng X M, Fu B J, Piao S L, Wang S, Ciais P, Zeng Z Z, Lü Y H, Zeng Y, Li Y, Jiang X H, Wu B F. 2016. Revegetation in China’s Loess Plateau is approaching sustainable water resource limits. Nat Clim Change, 6: 1019–1022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ganguly S, Friedl M A, Tan B, Zhang X Y, Verma M. 2010. Land surface phenology from MODIS: Characterization of the Collection 5 global land cover dynamics product. Remote Sens Environ, 114: 1805–1816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao Y, Chen F, Miguez-Macho G, Li X. 2020. Understanding precipitation recycling over the Tibetan Plateau using tracer analysis with WRF. Clim Dyn, 55: 2921–2937

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbard S, Caldeira K, Bala G, Phillips T J, Wickett M. 2005. Climate effects of global land cover change. Geophys Res Lett, 32: L23705

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He J, Yang K, Tang W, Lu H, Qin J, Chen Y, Li X. 2020. The first highresolution meteorological forcing dataset for land process studies over China. Sci Data, 7: 1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hersbach H, Dee D. 2016. ERA5 reanalysis is in production. ECMWF Newslett, 147: 5–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch A L, Pitman A J, Kala J. 2014. The role of land cover change in modulating the soil moisture-temperature land-atmosphere coupling strength over Australia. Geophys Res Lett, 41: 5883–5890

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu C H, Chen X J, Chen J G. 2008. Study on the spatial distribution of water and sediment in the Yellow River and its change process (in Chinese). J Hydraul Eng, 39: 518–527

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu Y, Zhang X Z, Mao R, Gong D Y, Liu H B, Yang J. 2015. Modeled responses of summer climate to realistic land use/cover changes from the 1980s to the 2000s over eastern China. J Geophys Res Atmos, 120: 167–179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jin J, Wen L. 2012. Evaluation of snowmelt simulation in the weather research and forecasting model. J Geophys Res, 117: D10110

    Google Scholar 

  • Kain J S. 2004. The Kain-Fritsch convective parameterization: An update. J Appl Meteor, 43: 170–181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang W, Bai D, Wang F Y, Fu B J, Yan J P, Wang S, Yang Y T, Long D, Feng M Q. 2015. Quantifying the impacts of climate change and ecological restoration on streamflow changes based on a Budyko hydrological model in China’s Loess Plateau. Water Resour Res, 51: 6500–6519

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu J Y, Shao Q Q, Yan X D, Fan W J, Deng X Zh, Zhan J Y, Gao X J, Huang L, Xu X L, Hu Y F, Wang J B, Kuang W H. 2011. Preliminary study on research progress and methods of land use change Impact on global climate (in Chinese). Earth Sci Prog, 26: 1015–1022

    Google Scholar 

  • Luo L H, Zhang Y N, Zhou J, Pan X D, Sun W J. 2013. Research on land surface process simulation of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau based on CLM model driven by WRF (in Chinese). J Glaciol Geocryol, 35: 553–564

    Google Scholar 

  • Mlawer E J, Taubman S J, Brown P D, Iacono M J, Clough S A. 1997. Radiative transfer for inhomogeneous atmospheres: RRTM, a validated correlated-k model for the longwave. J Geophys Res, 102: 16663–16682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nakanishi M, Niino H. 2006. An improved Mellor-Yamada level-3 model: Its numerical stability and application to a regional prediction of advection fog. Bound-Layer Meteorol, 119: 397–407

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neale R, Hoskins B. 2010. Description of the NCAR community atmosphere model (CAM 5.0). NCAR Technical Note. Boulder: National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

    Google Scholar 

  • Piao S L, Zhang X P, Chen A P, Liu Q, Lian X, Wang X H, Peng S S, Wu X C. 2019. The impacts of climate extremes on the terrestrial carbon cycle: A review. Sci China Earth Sci, 62: 1551–1563

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ren H C, Shi X L, Zhang Z Q. 2014. Analysis on the Characteristics of the Change of Leaf Area Index in China from 2003 to 2009 (in Chinese). Meteorol Sci, 34: 171–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen P K. 1968. Estimates of the regression coefficient Based on Kendall’s Tau. J Am Statist Associat, 63: 1379–1389

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Su C H, Fu B J. 2013. Evolution of ecosystem services in the Chinese Loess Plateau under climatic and land use changes. Glob Planet Change, 101: 119–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Subin Z M, Riley W J, Jin J M, Christianson D S, Torn M S, Kueppers L M. 2011. Ecosystem feedbacks to climate change in California: Development, testing, and analysis using a coupled regional atmosphere and land surface model (WRF3-CLM3.5). Earth Interact, 15: 1–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Theil H. 1950. A rank-invariant method of linear and polynomial regression analysis. I, II, III. Proc Roy Netherlands Acad Sci, 53: 386–392, 521–525, 1397–1412

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang Q H. 2020. Global change hydrology: Terrestrial water cycle and global change (in Chinese). Sci Sin Terr, 50: 436–438

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang C H, Sun C. 2013. The establishment and preliminary test of a regional climate model (WRFC) based on WRF+CLM (in Chinese). J Plateau Meteorol, 32: 1626–1637

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang F, Wang Z M, Yang H B, Zhao Y. 2018. Study of the temporal and spatial patterns of drought in the Yellow River basin based on SPEI. Sci China Earth Sci, 61: 1098–1111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang G Q, Zhang C C, Liu J H, Wei J H, Xue H, Li T J. 2006. Vegetation cover change and benefit analysis of water and sediment reduction in the sediment-rich and coarse sand regions of the Yellow River basin (in Chinese). Sed Res, 2: 10–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang S, Fu B J, Piao S L, Lü Y H, Ciais P, Feng X M, Wang Y F. 2016. Reduced sediment transport in the Yellow River due to anthropogenic changes. Nat Geosci, 9: 38–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y Q, Shao M A, Shao H B. 2010. A preliminary investigation of the dynamic characteristics of dried soil layers on the Loess Plateau of China. J Hydrol, 381: 9–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y Q, Shao M A, Zhu Y J, Liu Z P. 2011. Impacts of land use and plant characteristics on dried soil layers in different climatic regions on the Loess Plateau of China. Agric For Meteor, 151: 437–448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y Y, Xie Z H, Jia B H, Yu Y. 2015. Simulation and evaluation of China’s regional vegetation total primary productivity based on the land surface process model CLM4 (in Chinese). J Clim Environ Res, 20: 97–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Wen X H, Lu S H, Jin J M. 2012. Integrating remote sensing data with WRF for improved simulations of Casis effects on local weather processes over an RRID region in northwestern China. J Hydrometeorol, 13: 573–587

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu L Y, Zhang J Y. 2013. Role of land-atmosphere coupling in summer droughts and floods over eastern China for the 1998 and 1999 cases. Chin Sci Bull, 58: 3978–3985

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xiao Z Q, Liang S L, Wang J D, Yang X, Zhao X, Song J L. 2016. Long-Time-Series global land surface satellite leaf area index product derived from MODIS and AVHRR surface reflectance. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens, 54: 5301–5318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xiao Z Q, Wang J D, Wang S. 2008. MODIS LAI products in China and their improvements (in Chinese). J Remote Sens, 12: 993–1000

    Google Scholar 

  • Xiong J S, Zhang Y, Wang S Y, Shang L Y, Chen Y G, Shen X Y. 2014. Effect of CLM4.0 soil moisture transmission scheme improvement in simulation of land surface process in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (in Chinese). J Plateau Meteorol, 33: 323–336

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang D W, Zhang S L, Xu X Y. 2015. Analysis of the attribution of runoff changes in the Yellow River basin based on the water and heat coupled equilibrium equation (in Chinese). Sci Sin Tech, 45: 1024–1034

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang L, Zhang H D, Chen L D. 2018. Identification on threshold and efficiency of rainfall replenishment to soil water in semi-arid loess hilly areas. Sci China Earth Sci, 61: 292–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang F, Lu H, Yang K, He J, Wang W, Wright J S, Li C, Han M, Li Y. 2017. Evaluation of multiple forcing data sets for precipitation and shortwave radiation over major land areas of China. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci, 21: 5805–5821

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang K, He J, Tang W, Qin J, Cheng C C K. 2010. On downward shortwave and longwave radiations over high altitude regions: Observation and modeling in the Tibetan Plateau. Agric For Meteor, 150: 38–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang Y, Zuo H C, Yang Q D, Du B, Wang X X, Wang M X, Wu J J. 2015. Numerical simulation research on the rapidly changing land surface process of the Desert-Steppe transition zone in arid regions by CLM4.0 model (in Chinese). J Plateau Meteorol, 34: 923–934

    Google Scholar 

  • Yu E T, Wang H J, Sun J Q. 2010. A quick report on a dynamical downscaling simulation over China using the nested model. Atmos Ocean Sci Lett, 3: 325–329

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang B Q, He C S, Burnham M, Zhang L H. 2016. Evaluating the coupling effects of climate aridity and vegetation restoration on soil erosion over the Loess Plateau in China. Sci Total Environ, 539: 436–449

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang B Q, Wu P T, Zhao X N. 2011. Monitoring and analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution of vegetation cover in the Loess Plateau in the past 30 years (in Chinese). J Agricul Eng, 27: 287–293

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2020YFA0608403) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42022001, 41877150, 42041004 & 42001029).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Baoqing Zhang & Lei Tian

  2. Institute of Green Development for the Yellow River Drainage Basin, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Lei Tian

  3. Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Xining Zhao & Pute Wu

Authors
  1. Baoqing Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lei Tian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xining Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Pute Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xining Zhao.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, B., Tian, L., Zhao, X. et al. Feedbacks between vegetation restoration and local precipitation over the Loess Plateau in China. Sci. China Earth Sci. 64, 920–931 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-020-9751-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-020-9751-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation