Abstract
Changes in the amount and location of cropland areas may affect the potential crop production at different spatial scales. However, most studies ignore the impacts of cropland displacement on potential crop production. In many countries, cropland protection policies mainly aim for no loss in cropland area, while there is no restriction on change of cropland location. Taking China as the study area, we analyze the impacts of cropland displacement on potential crop production at four administrative levels during the period 2000 and 2018. At the national level, we find a net decrease in cropland area of 0.81 Mha, while another 19.63 Mha was displaced. The former led to a decrease of 4.20 Mton in potential crop production, while the latter resulted in a decrease of 43.26 Mton as a result of lower quality of the newly cultivated lands. In other words, cropland displacement explains 91% of the total loss in potential crop production at the national scale. However, the contribution of cropland displacement to total change in potential crop production is increasingly smaller at provincial level, municipal level, and county levels. These findings highlight the importance of geographic location on crop production and suggest that cropland policies should consider geographic location in addition to cropland area.
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This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers 41971240, 41371113, 41701194), The Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science project (Grant numbers 20YJC630182,18JHQ081), and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (Grant number 311819 GLOLAND).
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Yang, B., Ke, X., van Vliet, J. et al. Impact of cropland displacement on the potential crop production in China: a multi-scale analysis. Reg Environ Change 20, 97 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-020-01690-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-020-01690-x