Human disturbance caused stronger influences on global vegetation change than climate change

PeerJ

article

Xianliang Zhang¹  Xuanrui Huang¹ 

[1] College of Forestry, Hebei Agricultrual University;Long-term Forest Silviculture Research Station in Saihanba

关键词: Vegetation types;    Human activity;    Vegetation change;    Climate change;    Climatic effects;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.7763

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Global vegetation distribution has been influenced by human disturbance and climate change. The past vegetation changes were studied in numerous studies while few studies had addressed the relative contributions of human disturbance and climate change on vegetation change. To separate the influences of human disturbance and climate change on the vegetation changes, we compared the existing vegetation which indicates the vegetation distribution under human influences with the potential vegetation which reflects the vegetation distribution without human influences. The results showed that climate-induced vegetation changes only occurred in a few grid cells from the period 1982–1996 to the period 1997–2013. Human-induced vegetation changes occurred worldwide, except in the polar and desert regions. About 3% of total vegetation distribution was transformed by human activities from the period 1982–1996 to the period 1997–2013. Human disturbances caused stronger damage to global vegetation change than climate change. Our results indicated that the regions where vegetation experienced both human disturbance and climate change are eco-fragile regions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY