Land-use management unevenly amplifies urban browning in a greening world

Land-use management unevenly amplifies urban browning in a greening world | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Land-use management unevenly amplifies urban browning in a greening world Peiqi Yang, Long Li, Wenfeng Zhan, Yitao Li, Jing Liu, Wenmin Zhang, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8093706/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The greening of the Earth is widely attributed to biogeochemical drivers, yet the drivers of urban vegetation changes, further strongly modulated by land-use management, remain poorly understood. Here, we find that urban areas, particularly in the Global South, experience significant browning during 2000-2022, contrasting with widespread rural greening. This urban browning is primarily driven by land-use management, specifically urban expansion and human-induced degradation, with limited compensation from biogeochemical processes. Regional analysis reveals that urban expansion dominates vegetation loss in East and Southeast Asia, with nearly three times stronger impact than elsewhere. In the Americas and Africa, human-induced degradation is the major driver, exerting twice the negative influence compared to other regions. Although European cities show stronger green recovery efforts, biogeochemical drivers remain their primary greening driver due to the limited restored green space. Furthermore, high-income cities benefit more from biogeochemical enhancement and less from land-use pressures, whereas many Global South cities face severe trade-offs, with economic growth frequently coinciding with vegetation decline. These results underscore that land-use management unequally amplifies urban browning against a greening background, highlighting an urgent need for targeted land policies and sustainable development strategies to mitigate these adverse impacts, especially in the Global South. Earth and environmental sciences/Ecology/Urban ecology Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences/Environmental impact Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SIUrbanVegetation.docx SI-UrbanVegetation Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8093706","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":573535687,"identity":"5223c291-e01c-4c0c-a2e0-47cdf540d8ce","order_by":0,"name":"Peiqi 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