Spatiotemporal change of carbon storage in the Loess Plateau of northern Shaanxi, based on the InVEST Model

摘要

In recent years, land use and land cover have under gone tremendous change on the Loess Plateau, leading to temporal and spatial variation over many ecological factors, such as carbon storage. Based on four series of land-use data from remote-sensing imaging, spatiotemporal changes of land-use types and volume changes were analyzed. Combined with carbon-stock-assessment modules of the InVEST (integrated valuation ecosystem services and tradeoffs) model, the carbon-storage change was estimated and analyzed at the subcounty and subbasin scales. The results show that (1) cultiv-ated land and grassland area decreased, while woodland and urban land area increased in northern Shaanxi; (2) the average carbon storage in Huangling County and the Beiluo River Basin is the largest, while that of Yuyang County and the Xinshui River Basin is the minimum, and that of Wuqi County showed the greatest growth; (3) carbon storage in the study area showed a definite decrease in 2000, but in general has increased from 1995 to 2010; (4) carbon-storage figures of sub-basins and counties are all restricted by the natural status and land-use landscape of the whole study area. From the results, it can be seen that the effect of ecological policies is remarkable. This study has important implications for the rational planning of land use, adjustment of the ecosystem carbon cycle, and related policies.