Ecosystem Functioning of the Loess Plateau in China from Vegetation Restoration Relied Largely on Climate

Climate change and anthropogenic replantation are supposed to greatly vegetation coverage ecosystem stability functions, e.g., net primary productivity (NPP), evapotranspiration (ET) water use efficiency (WUE). Our study compared WUE of nature- human-induced forest cover increase on the Loess Plateau since 2000 using satellite-derived Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF), NPP, ET. This also applied over 30 years model-based NPP meteorological observations compare changes brought up by Grain for Green Project. The result showed that average fraction increased from 7.1% (~4.5 × 104 km2) in 11.2% (~7.3 2014. Artificial occupied 76.43% significantly increasing tree regions. role revegetation practice ET became gradually more dominant than climate factors artificial forests northern southern part Plateau. For areas experiencing limited increase, higher natural under similar mean annual precipitation (MAP). difference was small between neighboring areas. northwest had an resilience, whereas south resistance temperature change. dependency reforested fluctuation indicates a growing threat scarcity sustainability reforestation semi-arid