Greening China Naturally
Shixiong Cao,Ge Sun,Zhiqiang Zhang,Liding Chen,Qi Feng,Bojie Fu,Steve McNulty,David Shankman,Jianwu Tang,Yanhui Wang,Xiaohua Wei +10 more
TLDR
China leads the world in afforestation, and is one of the few countries whose forested area is increasing, but this massive “greening” effort has been less effective than expected and has sometimes produced unintended environmental, ecological, and socioeconomic consequences.Abstract:
China leads the world in afforestation, and is one of the few countries whose forested area is increasing. However, this massive “greening” effort has been less effective than expected; afforestation has sometimes produced unintended environmental, ecological, and socioeconomic consequences, and has failed to achieve the desired ecological benefits. Where afforestation has succeeded, the approach was tailored to local environmental conditions. Using the right plant species or species composition for the site and considering alternatives such as grassland restoration have been important success factors. To expand this success, government policy should shift from a forest-based approach to a results-based approach. In addition, long-term monitoring must be implemented to provide the data needed to develop a cost-effective, scientifically informed restoration policy.read more
Citations
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Mapping tree density at a global scale
Thomas W. Crowther,Henry B. Glick,Kristofer R. Covey,C. Bettigole,Daniel S. Maynard,Stephen M. Thomas,Jeffrey R. Smith,G. Hintler,Marlyse C. Duguid,Giuseppe Amatulli,Mao-Ning Tuanmu,Walter Jetz,Walter Jetz,Christian Salas,C. Stam,Daniel Piotto,Rebecca Tavani,Simon F. Green,Simon F. Green,G. Bruce,Steven Williams,Susan K. Wiser,Markus Huber,Geerten M. Hengeveld,Gert-Jan Nabuurs,Elena B. Tikhonova,Peter Borchardt,Ching-Feng Li,L.W. Powrie,Markus Fischer,Andreas Hemp,Jürgen Homeier,P. Cho,Alexander Christian Vibrans,Peter M. Umunay,Shilong Piao,Candy Rowe,Mark S. Ashton,Peter R. Crane,Mark A. Bradford +39 more
TL;DR: This map reveals that the global number of trees is approximately 3.04 trillion, an order of magnitude higher than the previous estimate, and the globalNumber of trees has fallen by approximately 46% since the start of human civilization.
Journal ArticleDOI
Opportunities for biodiversity gains under the world/'s largest reforestation programme
Fangyuan Hua,Xiaoyang Wang,Xinlei Zheng,Brendan Fisher,Lin Wang,Jianguo Zhu,Ya Tang,Douglas W. Yu,Douglas W. Yu,David S. Wilcove +9 more
TL;DR: Focusing on birds and bees in Sichuan Province, it is found that GFGP reforestation results in modest gains and losses of bird diversity, along with major losses of bee diversity.
Drivers and impacts of changes in China’s drylands
Changjia Li,Bojie Fu,Shuai Wang,Lindsay C. Stringer,Yaping Wang,Zidong Li,Yanxu Liu,Wenxin Zhou +7 more
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors synthesize the changes observed in China's drylands, with a focus on their drivers and the effects of 13 large-scale land conservation and restoration programs aimed at mitigating them.
Journal ArticleDOI
Response of net primary production to land use and land cover change in mainland China since the late 1980s.
TL;DR: The results indicate that the national total losses in NPP attributed to urbanization reached 1.695 TgC between the late 1980s and 2015, and the conversion to grassland or forestland increased the monthly and total NPPs of Northern China, suggesting that returning to forestland and grassland could increase the carbon sequestration capacity of terrestrial ecosystems in mainland China.
References
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Ecological and socioeconomic effects of China's policies for ecosystem services
TL;DR: The Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP) and the Grain to Green Program (GTGP) are among the biggest programs in the world because of their ambitious goals, massive scales, huge payments, and potentially enormous impacts.
Trading water for carbon with biological carbon sequestration
Robert B. Jackson,Esteban G. Jobbágy,Roni Avissar,S. Baidya Roy,Damian Barrett,Charles W. Cook,Kathleen A. Farley,D. Le Maitre,Bruce A. McCarl,Brian C. Murray +9 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors combined field research, synthesis of more than 600 observations, and climate and economic modeling to document substantial losses in stream flow, and increased soil salinization and acidification, with afforestation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Trading water for carbon with biological carbon sequestration
Robert B. Jackson,Esteban G. Jobbágy,Esteban G. Jobbágy,Roni Avissar,Somnath Baidya Roy,Damian Barrett,Charles W. Cook,Kathleen A. Farley,David C. Le Maitre,Bruce A. McCarl,Brian C. Murray +10 more
TL;DR: This work combined field research, synthesis of more than 600 observations, and climate and economic modeling to document substantial losses in stream flow, and increased soil salinization and acidification, with afforestation in tree plantations.
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Chemical and biological technologies for hydrogen sulfide emission control in sewer systems: a review.
TL;DR: The control of hydrogen sulfide emission by using a microbial fuel cell (MFC) can be cost-effective while the BOD is removed partially and novel inhibitors, such as slow release solid-phase oxygen and formaldehyde, warrant further study to control hydrogen sulfides emission in sewer systems.
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Excessive reliance on afforestation in China's arid and semi-arid regions: Lessons in ecological restoration
TL;DR: In this paper, the potential links between China's historical large-scale afforestation practices and the program's effects on environmental restoration in arid and semi-arid regions in northern China based on a review of data from published papers are discussed.