Are climate conditions or human activities the key to vegetation change? —— Partition identification and optimization management

Are climate conditions or human activities the key to vegetation change? —— Partition identification and optimization management | 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 Research Article Are climate conditions or human activities the key to vegetation change? —— Partition identification and optimization management Chao Wang, Yanjing Yang, Xueting Zeng This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9258791/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Climate change and human activities cause huge serious threats to natural ecosystem conditions. Investigating the dynamics and dominant factors of Net Primary Production (NPP) is crucial for zoning management and strengthening ecosystem protection. In view of this, an integrated framework is constructed for vegetation zoning management. Specifically, taking Yunnan, characterized by forest land and carbon pools in China even worldwide, as the study area, we investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics of NPP, identify its contributions of climatic factors and human activities, and propose priority management zoning plan and optimization suggestions. The results show that: (1) The NPP showed a distinct southwest-to-northeast decreasing gradient, averaging 1024.73 gC/m² during 2000 − 2023. This upward trend (2.34 gC/m²/yr) has been attributed to enhanced management practices, and concurrent variations in climatic conditions and land − use patterns. (2) Human activities exerted significantly stronger influence on NPP than climatic factors. NPP in managed terrestrial systems was predominantly driven by human activities, whereas NPP in unused land was primarily influenced by climatic factors. (3) Three dominate priority management zones −CoDEA (35%), HADEA (18%), and HADRA (17%) − collectively accounted for about 70% of total Yunnan areas and mainly distribute in cultivated land, woodland and grassland. Tailored approaches were developed for respective management zones. This study offers a scientific reference for targeted land use and vegetation zoning management, contributing to protect ecological environment and cope with climate change. Net Primary Production Climate change Ecological protection Zoning management Land use Human activities Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files 06SupplementaryMaterial.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 05 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 01 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 01 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 29 Mar, 2026 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-9258791","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":617871007,"identity":"322555e3-d2a7-463e-8507-8b05db008631","order_by":0,"name":"Chao Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Capital University of Economics and Business","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Chao","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":617871011,"identity":"d4180b0e-7127-4e6b-8c01-b6e55df41e0e","order_by":1,"name":"Yanjing Yang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Capital University of Economics and Business","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yanjing","middleName":"","lastName":"Yang","suffix":""},{"id":617871015,"identity":"0fe7102e-7661-4aca-87eb-4032b9ba921e","order_by":2,"name":"Xueting Zeng","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABAUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDADNgYGxgdAOgGIDYjSIQHUwmxAmhaQRRJEaZFv7z38mrfNpo5Puv1axc82mzwG9uZtEgw1d3BqYew5l2Y5sy1Ngk3mTNnN3ra0YgaeY2USDMee4dTCLJFjZvCx7bAEm0RO2m3GtsOJDUARCcaGwzi1sMm/MTNIbPsP1lLM2PY/sQEoglcLjwSP8YOPbQeAWtKPMTO2HQDawoNfiwRPjhnjjHPJkm0SOcySPeeSi9l40ootEo7h1iLffsb4M0+ZHb/8jPSHH36U2eXxsx/eeONDDW4tDNDoALkREh1sICIBnwZgoH2A0OwP8KsbBaNgFIyCEQsAefdNe7vEBMEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Capital University of Economics and Business","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xueting","middleName":"","lastName":"Zeng","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-29 12:38:40","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9258791/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9258791/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":108006155,"identity":"8b183cf3-ae80-4d20-8014-b29afd19f57a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-28 12:54:02","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1911663,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"05manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9258791/v1_covered_b4cf304c-b14c-4280-91f5-5e6c992bcb0c.pdf"},{"id":107923428,"identity":"fb9de8ed-2545-4d52-ac48-a42e49c47354","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-27 15:12:30","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":23202,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"06SupplementaryMaterial.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9258791/v1/99fa95637be71dbeb39a4d63.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Are climate conditions or human activities the key to vegetation change? —— Partition identification and optimization management","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"environmental-monitoring-and-assessment","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"emas","sideBox":"Learn more about [Environmental Monitoring and Assessment](http://link.springer.com/journal/10661)","snPcode":"10661","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10661/3","title":"Environmental Monitoring and Assessment","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Net Primary Production, Climate change, Ecological protection, Zoning management, Land use, Human activities","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9258791/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9258791/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eClimate change and human activities cause huge serious threats to natural ecosystem conditions. Investigating the dynamics and dominant factors of Net Primary Production (NPP) is crucial for zoning management and strengthening ecosystem protection. In view of this, an integrated framework is constructed for vegetation zoning management. Specifically, taking Yunnan, characterized by forest land and carbon pools in China even worldwide, as the study area, we investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics of NPP, identify its contributions of climatic factors and human activities, and propose priority management zoning plan and optimization suggestions. The results show that: (1) The NPP showed a distinct southwest-to-northeast decreasing gradient, averaging 1024.73 gC/m\u0026sup2; during 2000\u0026thinsp;\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;2023. This upward trend (2.34 gC/m\u0026sup2;/yr) has been attributed to enhanced management practices, and concurrent variations in climatic conditions and land\u0026thinsp;\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;use patterns. (2) Human activities exerted significantly stronger influence on NPP than climatic factors. NPP in managed terrestrial systems was predominantly driven by human activities, whereas NPP in unused land was primarily influenced by climatic factors. (3) Three dominate priority management zones \u0026minus;CoDEA (35%), HADEA (18%), and HADRA (17%) \u0026minus; collectively accounted for about 70% of total Yunnan areas and mainly distribute in cultivated land, woodland and grassland. Tailored approaches were developed for respective management zones. This study offers a scientific reference for targeted land use and vegetation zoning management, contributing to protect ecological environment and cope with climate change.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Are climate conditions or human activities the key to vegetation change? —— Partition identification and optimization management","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-27 15:11:43","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9258791/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2026-04-05T19:38:40+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-04-01T14:12:18+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-04-01T14:12:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Environmental Monitoring and Assessment","date":"2026-03-29T12:22:18+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"environmental-monitoring-and-assessment","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"emas","sideBox":"Learn more about [Environmental Monitoring and Assessment](http://link.springer.com/journal/10661)","snPcode":"10661","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10661/3","title":"Environmental Monitoring and Assessment","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"75ed0e7f-c665-4a31-aba7-748e8e116270","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 27th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"in-revision","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-12T01:24:37+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-27 15:11:43","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9258791","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9258791","identity":"rs-9258791","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}