Quantitative assessment of ecosystem vulnerability to climate change
Methodology and application in China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15544749 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jiangbo Gao (0000-0003-3161-1763, Chinese Academy of Sciences, corresponding author), Kewei Jiao (0000-0003-3914-1938, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Shaohong Wu (0000-0003-3011-4685, Chinese Academy of Sciences) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Pages | 094016-094016 |
| Publication date | 2018-08-28 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/aadd2e |
| OpenAlex | W2889315007 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 34 |
Understanding how ecosystem vulnerability in response to climate change is generated and distributed is an important topic; however, quantitative assessments of the vulnerability process remain relatively rare. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) regards ecosystem vulnerability as sensitivity or susceptibility to harm, lacking the capacity to cope and adapt. Through analysis of the concept of vulnerability, we propose a response-based quantitative method to assess ecosystem vulnerability, integrating the concepts of sensitivity and adaptability. This method was applied to assess ecosystem vulnerability in China from 1981 to 2050. The results indicated that vulnerability would develop in nearly 30% of the terrestrial ecosystems of China. Vulnerability would be severe in the grassland and desert ecosystems, distributed mainly in the Tianshan Mountain and the Inner Mongolia Plateau. As the effects of sensitivity and adaptability to temperature and precipitation differ, obvious regional differences exist between the ecosystem vulnerability zones in China. For example, the effects of climate warming would be severe in the northwest of the Loess Plateau, with the vulnerability caused mainly by high sensitivity to warming. However, the vulnerability in the southeastern part would be caused mainly by low adaptability to increasing precipitation. Compared with previous research, our method emphasizes the critical role of adaptability, which enhances the scientificity and reasonableness of assessing ecosystem vulnerability, and enriches the methodology adopted under the IPCC framework. However, as we did not consider fully the autonomous adaptation mechanism in ecosystem vulnerability, this aspect should be combined with other factors in future study
Adaptability · Adaptation (eye · Biology · Climate change · Ecosystem · Environmental resource management · Psychological resilience · Vulnerability (computing · Vulnerability assessment · Climate change impacts on agriculture · Computer Science · Ecosystem dynamics and resilience · Environmental Science · Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis · Ecology
Terrestrial moisture sources dominate summer precipitation fluctuations in Northwest China
Assessment of household vulnerability to embankment breaching in the coastal area of the Indian Sundarban
Impacts of shellfish reef management on the provision of ecosystem services resulting from climate change in the Dutch Wadden Sea
Variation in Vegetation and Its Driving Force in the Pearl River Delta Region of China
Ecological restoration strategies towards environmental suitability and social equity on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
Has the IPCC’s revised vulnerability concept been well adopted
Seeding the clouds to reach the sky
Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments
Climate change impacts, adaptive capacity, and vulnerability of European forest ecosystems
Evaluation of ecosystem dynamics, plant geography and terrestrial carbon cycling in the LPJ dynamic global vegetation model
Vulnerabilities—bibliometric analysis and literature review of evolving concepts
Evaluating regional vulnerability to climate change
Critical climate change as an approach to assess climate change impacts in Europe
Vulnerability
Scholarly networks on resilience, vulnerability and adaptation within the human dimensions of global environmental change
Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability
The determinants of vulnerability and adaptive capacity at the national level and the implications for adaptation
Agricultural vulnerability over the Chinese Loess Plateau in response to climate change
Vulnerability
| Citations per year | 1.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Highly cited | No |