Study on the Relationship between Topological Characteristics of Vegetation Ecospatial Network and Carbon Sequestration Capacity in the Yellow River Basin, China

Abstract

Achieving carbon neutrality is a necessary effort to rid humanity of a catastrophic climate and is a goal for China in the future. Ecological space plays an important role in the realization of carbon neutrality, but the relationship between the structure of vegetation ecological space and vegetation carbon sequestration capacity has been the focus of research. In this study, we extracted the base data from MODIS products and other remote sensing products, and then combined them with the MCR model to construct a vegetation ecospatial network in the Yellow River Basin in 2018. Afterward, we calculated the topological indicators of ecological nodes in the network and analyzed the relationship between the carbon sequestration capacity (net biome productivity) of ecological nodes and these topological indicators in combination with the Biome-BGC model. The results showed that there was a negative linear correlation between the betweenness centrality of forest nodes and their carbon sequestration capacity in the Yellow River Basin (p < 0.05, R2 = 0.59). On the other hand, there was a positive linear correlation between the clustering coefficient of grassland nodes and their carbon sequestration capacity (p < 0.01, R2 = 0.49). In addition, we briefly evaluated the vegetation ecospatial network in the Yellow River BASIN and suggested its optimization direction under the background of carbon neutrality in the future. Increasing the carbon sequestration capacity of vegetation through the construction of national ecological projects is one of the ways to achieve carbon neutrality, and this study provides a reference for the planning of future national ecological projects in the Yellow River Basin. Furthermore, this is also a case study of the application of remote sensing in vegetation carbon budgeting.

Do urban green ecological networks have the capacity to store higher levels of carbon?

“…Namely, the topology of nodes can be optimised, with the edge enhancement strategy driving the carbon storage capacity of the network. Currently, some scholars have made specific suggestions on the study of carbon sink networks, such as the construction of a spatial optimization scheme for mining cities to enhance ecological services and sink functions simultaneously [56], or the clear correlation between topological characteristics and carbon nodes [57]. However, none have addressed the important components of the carbon sink network, including the specific correlation between source sites and nodes.…”

“…For instance, scientists suggest connecting fragmented ecological source sites and adding corridors between lower-grade sources by placing stepping stones at corridor breakpoints. By doing so, scientists want to create an ecological network area where ecological functions and carbon sinks can work together more effectively [24][25][26][27]. Other scientists have attempted to establish the connection between ecological spatial relationship networks.…”

An exploration of spatial-temporal characteristics and spatial spillover effects of forest carbon sinks in the Yellow River Basin, China

“…Previous research on the forest ecosystem in the Yellow River Basin has mainly focused on the distribution of forest resources (Liu et al 2019;Wohlfart et al 2017), forest carbon storage and carbon density (Yang et al 2023;Zhang et al 2010;Zhang et al 2023), and general analysis of vegetation carbon sinks and their regional spatial characteristics in local areas (Fang et al 2021;Xia et al 2019;. The Yellow River Basin has a vast territory with varying levels of forestry development and forest resource endowments (Yang et al 2023).…”

Restoration and renewal of ecological spatial network in mining cities for the purpose of enhancing carbon Sinks: The case of Xuzhou, China

“…Ecological spatial network is the result of combining ecological network with complex network (Fang et al 2021). In the face of the challenge of continuous fragmentation of ecosystems and landscapes,Ecological spatial network are a way to explore and restore landscape ecology from a macro perspective.The method of applying complex network theory can abstract and quantify the ecosystem and landscape space in the study area,while the topological indicators in the complex network can be used to analyze the relationship between the elements in the network and propose practical optimization solutions based on the values in the indicators (Guo et al 2021).…”