Greening rate in North Korea doubles South Korea
South and North Korea have experienced contrasting economic developments since the 1950s while sharing similar climates. Previous studies revealed an overall long-term greening trend across the Korean Peninsula based on greenness data from coarse-resolution satellite images. However, there has been...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acdaad |
| _version_ | 1797747246703312896 |
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| author | Sai Qu Youngryel Ryu Jiangong Liu Jonathan A Wang |
| author_facet | Sai Qu Youngryel Ryu Jiangong Liu Jonathan A Wang |
| author_sort | Sai Qu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | South and North Korea have experienced contrasting economic developments since the 1950s while sharing similar climates. Previous studies revealed an overall long-term greening trend across the Korean Peninsula based on greenness data from coarse-resolution satellite images. However, there has been no comprehensive comparison of the greenness patterns and the driving mechanisms between two countries due to the limitations of coarse-resolution satellite data. Here, we performed cross-calibration among Landsat sensors and adopted a phenology-based approach to generate Landsat annual maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI _max ) time series for each pixel from 1986 to 2017. We found that over 1986–2017, the greening rate in North Korea was almost twice that of South Korea. Cropland in South Korea is the main source of the greening discrepancy. The expansion of agricultural facilities in the stable cropland area and urbanization in the cropland loss area of South Korea contributed 57% to the significant negative NDVI _max trend, which was dominant over the forest NDVI _max increase resulting from rising temperatures, CO _2 fertilization effects and afforestation projects. However, in North Korea, CO _2 fertilization effects in the stable cropland area and transition from grassland to cropland promoted an increase in NDVI _max , despite decreasing NDVI _max in forest areas due to deforestation. Our results highlight the need for delineating fine-scale land-use changes to advance our understanding of regional vegetation dynamics. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:49:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8fb8e7abed2e4ac8865aed8ff2385f26 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:49:04Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-8fb8e7abed2e4ac8865aed8ff2385f262023-08-09T15:18:52ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262023-01-0118808402010.1088/1748-9326/acdaadGreening rate in North Korea doubles South KoreaSai Qu0Youngryel Ryu1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6238-2479Jiangong Liu2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4148-9522Jonathan A Wang3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2839-0699School of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University , Wuhan, People’s Republic of China; Department of Landscape Architecture and Rural Systems Engineering, Seoul National University , Seoul, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Landscape Architecture and Rural Systems Engineering, Seoul National University , Seoul, Republic of Korea; Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University , Seoul, Republic of KoreaResearch Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University , Seoul, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Earth System Science, The University of California , Irvine, CA 92697-3100, United States of AmericaSouth and North Korea have experienced contrasting economic developments since the 1950s while sharing similar climates. Previous studies revealed an overall long-term greening trend across the Korean Peninsula based on greenness data from coarse-resolution satellite images. However, there has been no comprehensive comparison of the greenness patterns and the driving mechanisms between two countries due to the limitations of coarse-resolution satellite data. Here, we performed cross-calibration among Landsat sensors and adopted a phenology-based approach to generate Landsat annual maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI _max ) time series for each pixel from 1986 to 2017. We found that over 1986–2017, the greening rate in North Korea was almost twice that of South Korea. Cropland in South Korea is the main source of the greening discrepancy. The expansion of agricultural facilities in the stable cropland area and urbanization in the cropland loss area of South Korea contributed 57% to the significant negative NDVI _max trend, which was dominant over the forest NDVI _max increase resulting from rising temperatures, CO _2 fertilization effects and afforestation projects. However, in North Korea, CO _2 fertilization effects in the stable cropland area and transition from grassland to cropland promoted an increase in NDVI _max , despite decreasing NDVI _max in forest areas due to deforestation. Our results highlight the need for delineating fine-scale land-use changes to advance our understanding of regional vegetation dynamics.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acdaadgreening changeland use changeLandsatcropforestrandom forest |
| spellingShingle | Sai Qu Youngryel Ryu Jiangong Liu Jonathan A Wang Greening rate in North Korea doubles South Korea Environmental Research Letters greening change land use change Landsat crop forest random forest |
| title | Greening rate in North Korea doubles South Korea |
| title_full | Greening rate in North Korea doubles South Korea |
| title_fullStr | Greening rate in North Korea doubles South Korea |
| title_full_unstemmed | Greening rate in North Korea doubles South Korea |
| title_short | Greening rate in North Korea doubles South Korea |
| title_sort | greening rate in north korea doubles south korea |
| topic | greening change land use change Landsat crop forest random forest |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acdaad |
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