Work

Quantifying Carbon Use Efficiency: Unraveling the Impact of Climate Change and Ecological Engineering on Vegetation in the Three Rivers Source Region

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Carbon Use Efficiency (CUE) stands as a critical parameter for understanding the carbon cycle within ecosystems, representing the efficacy with which vegetation transforms light energy into organic matter. Given the challenges posed by global warming, a comprehensive grasp of the fluctuations and determinants of CUE is essential. Despite its significance, current research on the factors influencing CUE remains incomplete, notably lacking in exploration regarding the impacts of ecological engineering on CUE. This paper aims to elucidate the influences of climate change and ecological engineering on CUE while analyzing the contributing factors to its fluctuations. Our findings indicate an average CUE of 0.8536±0.0026 with minor interannual variation. In the Three Rivers Source region（TRSR）, CUE is influenced jointly by ecological engineering (30.88%) and climate change (69.12%). Notably, climatic factors predominantly regulate CUE, accounting for approximately 90.19% of its regional variations, with over 44.74% of areas exhibiting contributions exceeding 80%. Moreover, the impact of evapotranspiration on CUE surpasses that of precipitation and temperature, while factors such as elevation and vegetation types also play significant roles. This study's quantification of climate change and ecological engineering effects on CUE holds substantial implications for predicting and evaluating global carbon cycling.

Source: Remote Sensing

DOI: 10.3390/rs16162909