Abstract

The global urbanization rate is accelerating; however, data limitations have far prevented robust estimations of either global urban expansion or its effects on terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP). Here, using a high resolution dataset of global land use/cover (GlobeLand30), we show that global urban areas expanded by an average of 5694 km2 per year between 2000 and 2010. The rapid urban expansion in the past decade has in turn reduced global terrestrial NPP, with a net loss of 22.4 Tg Carbon per year (Tg C year−1). Although small compared to total terrestrial NPP and fossil fuel carbon emissions worldwide, the urbanization-induced decrease in NPP offset 30% of the climate-driven increase (73.6 Tg C year−1) over the same period. Our findings highlight the urgent need for global strategies to address urban expansion, enhance natural carbon sinks, and increase agricultural productivity.

Details

Title
Global urban expansion offsets climate-driven increases in terrestrial net primary productivity
Author
Liu, Xiaoping 1 ; Fengsong Pei 2 ; Wen, Youyue 1 ; Li, Xia 3 ; Wang, Shaojian 4 ; Wu, Changjiang 1 ; Cai, Yiling 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Wu, Jianguo 5 ; Chen, Jun 6 ; Feng, Kuishuang 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Liu, Junguo 8 ; Hubacek, Klaus 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Davis, Steven J 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Yuan, Wenping 1 ; Le, Yu 11 ; Liu, Zhu 11   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China 
 School of Geography, Geomatics, and Planning, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, China 
 School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 
 School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA 
 School of Life Sciences & School of Sustainability, Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA 
 National Geomatics Center of China, Beijing, China 
 Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA 
 School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China 
 Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences (IVEM), Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen (ESRIG), Groningen, Netherlands; Department of Environmental Studies, Masaryk University, Jostova, Czech Republic; International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria 
10  Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA 
11  Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China 
Pages
1-8
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Dec 2019
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2322132861
Copyright
© 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.