Assessment of the restoration potential for ecological sustainability in the Xijiang River basin, Southwest China: A comparative analysis of karst and non-karst areas.

Vegetation restoration is an eco-friendly strategy for countering land degradation and biodiversity loss. Since 2000-2001, large-scale restoration projects have been performed in Southwest China, with the net primary productivity (NPP) increasing over the past two decades. However, negative ecohydrological impacts, including streamflow decline and soil moisture deficit, have been reported following afforestation. Current understanding of the permissible NPP capacity (NPP _cap ) and NPP potential (NPP _pot ) under karst and non-karst areas or planted and natural vegetations constrained by environmental factors remains unclear. Here multiple environmental drivers characterizing the heterogeneous landscape in the Xijiang River Basin (Southwest China) were employed to predict the NPP _cap using a random forest model. Results showed that 85% of the area exhibited an increasing trend in NPP _cap during 2001-2018. Overall, 3.50% of the area has exceeded the NPP _cap , implying an excessive plantation and potential water deficit in these areas. Excluding agriculture activities, urban areas, and water bodies, we found there is room for an average extra 22.85% of NPP enhancement. The NPP _pot was spatially imbalanced, with high NPP _pot located in the northeast, indicating these areas as a target area for future vegetation restoration. Moreover, the NPP _pot reduction in karst areas (1.12 g C m ^-2 a ^-1 ) was more pronounced than in non-karst areas (0.26 g C m ^-2 a ^-1 ), highlighting a stronger negative impact on NPP _pot in karst areas. Furthermore, significant NPP _pot differences were found between planted vegetation and natural vegetation for both karst and non-karst areas. According to the findings, we identified four separate restoration sub-zones and proposed tailored strategies to guide the implementation of future restoration efforts. Our study highlights restoration potential and where land is available for reforestation but also the urgent need for future restoration activities towards ecosystem sustainability.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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