The dynamics of desertification in the farming-pastoral region of North China over the past 10 years and their relationship to climate change and human activity

The farming-pastoral region of North China is a region that has suffered from serious desertification, and the multiple transitional characteristics in this region make it very difficult to link the progress of desertification to the driving forces behind it. This paper mainly focuses on the dynamics of desertification over the past 10 years and their relationship to climate change and human activity. According to the MODIS images in 2000 and 2010, the farming-pastoral region had experienced significant desertification dynamics over the past 10 years. The area of regions that had undergone desertification reversion and expansion were 186,240 km2 and 199,525 km2 respectively, and the spatial distribution of these regions showed great heterogeneity. The relationship between desertification dynamics and their driving forces was investigated by comparing the change in the NPP that was induced by climate change and human activity for each pixel that experienced desertification reversion and expansion. From 2000 to 2010, the coupling of climate change and human activity was the dominant factor behind desertification reversion. However, the human activity was the dominant factor that controlled the desertification expansion process between 2000 and 2010. The driving processes of desertification also had considerable spatial heterogeneity, and the dominant factors behind desertification reversion and expansion in each sub-region were not completely the same. So, the scale effect must be considered when explaining the results from similar studies.