Impacts of ecological programs on land use and ecosystem services since the 1980s: A case‐study of a typical catchment on the Loess Plateau, China

Abstract

China' Loess Plateau, which was once dominated by sloping fields with poor farming conditions and serious soil erosion, has experienced a series of ecological programs. This article sought to explore the impacts of ecological programs on land use and ecosystem services in a typical catchment of China's Loess Plateau from 1984 to 2017, and thus understand what needs to be improved for future ecological programs. The findings showed that: (a) Due to the implementation of various ecological programs, the land use structure was optimized, and vegetation coverage was significantly increased, especially with the implement of the Grain for Green (GFG) Program. (b) The change of the total ecosystem service value (ESV) presented a Ushaped curve. The total ESV decreased under the Comprehensive Management of Small Catchments Program, and increased significantly since the implementation of the GFG. The rapid increase stage can be traced to the effects of the Gully Land Consolidation Program, reflecting the time lag effect of ecological programs on the improvement of ecosystem services. (c) The various ecosystem services were improved significantly, except for the food provisioning value (FPV). The abandonment of croplands without consolidation determined the decline of the FPV, implying the necessity for a land-use efficiency boost. Our research proposed to build up an actor network to integrate local governments, rural cadres, villagers, enterprises, and natural resources, especially land resources, into ecological programs to ensure ecological restoration and activate the factors of production, thus securing the sustainable development of China' Loess Plateau.

Agronomic technology to promote sustainable utilization of newly created farmland in the Chinese Loess Plateau

“…In addition, farmers could improve their livelihoods by obtaining farmland transfer funds, wages, and share proceeds. Overall, the agronomic technology based on the agricultural geographical engineering could activate farmland resources to optimize the spatial structure, industrial structure, organizational structure, and human‐environment interaction (Liu, 2020), thus helping to reduce the degradation risk of NCF and realize the synergy of socioeconomic development and ecological restoration in the LP's watershed (Lescourret et al, 2015; Liu & Li, 2017a; Li et al, 2022), which is helpful for farmland protection and rural revitalization (Liu et al, 2020) (Figure 9).…”

“…Meanwhile, farmers continue their traditional crop planting with an extensive management mode after the GLCP, which exacerbates the degradation of NCF with higher sensitivity to tillage , 2017). Farmers as 'Homo economicus' usually abandon the NCF, which further renders farmland degradation over the years Li et al, 2022). In view of the above problems, this study proposed reconstructing soil microstructure to improve farmland quality and optimizing planting structure to boost agricultural profits according to the agricultural geographical engineering, and the effect was evaluated by the field experiment.…”

“…China has implemented a series of land consolidation engineering to alleviate farmland shortages in ecologically fragile areas, such as gully land consolidation, sandy land engineering, and barren hilly land consolidation (Liu et al, 2014; Liu & Wang, 2019). Yet, recent studies have revealed that newly created farmland (NCF) in land consolidation engineering possesses poor physicochemical properties, which substantially reduces crop yields and agricultural profits (Li et al, 2022; Ma, Chen, Wang, et al, 2020; Song & Liu, 2017; Song & Pijanowski, 2014). As natural processes take their time in developing soil fertility and improving soil quality (Ma, Chen, Zhou, et al, 2020), extra production factors are invested to prevent the degradation of NCF.…”

“…Excessive urban expansion and the overuse of chemical fertilizer, lead to a noticeable drop in the quantity and quality of farmland. The reducing quantity and quality of farmland and its decreasing agricultural profitability result in a large amount of farmland abandonment (Li et al, 2022; Castro et al, 2020; Liu, 2018; Song & Pijanowski, 2014). These problems severely threaten food security, poverty alleviation, and rural revitalization (Foley et al, 2005; Liu & Li, 2017a), particularly in ecologically fragile areas (Cao et al, 2017).…”

Multiple ecological effects and their drivers of ecological restoration programmes in the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau, China

“…As the concept of ecosystem services (ESs) has attracted extensive attention, and an increasing number of scholars have suggested that ESs should be included in decision‐making and ecosystem management (Costanza et al, 1997; Frelichova et al, 2014). For instance, Li et al (2022) pointed out that ERPs in the Loess Plateau significantly improved ESs except food production. However, different scholars often use different indicators, thus making it difficult to compare their results.…”