Agriculture intensifies soil moisture decline in Northern China
Open accessAbstract
Northern China is one of the most densely populated regions in the world. Agricultural activities have intensified since the 1980s to provide food security to the country. However, this intensification has likely contributed to an increasing scarcity in water resources, which may in turn be endangering food security. Based on in-situ measurements of soil moisture collected in agricultural plots during 1983-2012, we find that topsoil (0-50 cm) volumetric water content during the growing season has declined significantly (p < 0.01), with a trend of -0.011 to -0.015 m(3) m(-3) per decade. Observed discharge declines for the three large river basins are consistent with the effects of agricultural intensification, although other factors (e.g. dam constructions) likely have contributed to these trends. Practices like fertilizer application have favoured biomass growth and increased transpiration rates, thus reducing available soil water. In addition, the rapid proliferation of water-expensive crops (e.g., maize) and the expansion of the area dedicated to food production have also contributed to soil drying. Adoption of alternative agricultural practices that can meet the immediate food demand without compromising future water resources seem critical for the sustainability of the food production system.
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Water availability and WUE are major factors determining available land for energy cropping and reallocating or introducing crop species.
“Water availability [91,92] and WUE [61,93,94] are major factors determining available land for energy cropping and reallocating or introducing crop species.”
From Biomass and biofuels in China: Toward bioenergy resource potentials and their impacts on the environment (2018) · cites this paper as [92]
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- Authors
- Liu, Y., Pan, Z., Zhuang, Q., Miralles, D. G., Teuling, A. J., Zhang, T., An, P., Dong, Z., Zhang, J., He, D., Wang, L., Pan, X., Bai, W., & Niyogi, D.
- Affiliations
- Joint Global Change Research Institute (US)
- China Agricultural University (CN)
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- Ghent University (BE)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Pan, Zhihua
- Zhuang, Qianlai
- ORCID
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2015-07-09
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 11261-11261
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4497304
- OpenAlex
- W2270924128
- Cited by
- 107
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 6.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0919331, 0847472, 1028291, 0630319, CAREER)
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE‐FG02‐, DEFG0208ER64599, FG02-08ER64599)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX09AI26G, NASA- NNX09AI26G, NNX09AM55G, 0847472)
- Purdue University
- National Bureau of Statistics of China
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (41371232, 41271110, 2012CB956204, CAREER, 201103039)
- China Agricultural University
- Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (SR/00/306)
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (863.14.004)
- Ministry of Water Resources
- National Institutes of Health (UL1TR001108)
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (2012CB956204)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Environmental and Agricultural Sciences
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil erosion and sediment transport
- Keywords
- agricultural intensification, soil moisture decline, northern China, food security, water resources, river flow reduction, fertilizer use, transpiration, sustainable food production
- MeSH terms
- China, Fertilizers, Seasons, Soil, Water, Crops, Agricultural
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