{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T15:44:06Z","timestamp":1776440646741,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"20","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,20]],"date-time":"2022-10-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1666224000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["41871250"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41871250"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["41401412"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41401412"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["21-Y20B01-9001-19\/22"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["21-Y20B01-9001-19\/22"]}]},{"name":"National Science and Technology Major Project of China\u2019s High Resolution Earth Observation System","award":["41871250"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41871250"]}]},{"name":"National Science and Technology Major Project of China\u2019s High Resolution Earth Observation System","award":["41401412"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41401412"]}]},{"name":"National Science and Technology Major Project of China\u2019s High Resolution Earth Observation System","award":["21-Y20B01-9001-19\/22"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["21-Y20B01-9001-19\/22"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Climate change and human activities significantly affected environmental changes in drylands. However, the relative roles remain unclear regarding these factors\u2019 effects on environment changes in drylands. Herein, we analyzed vegetation change trends using remote-sensing datasets to determine the interactions of vegetation, climate, and anthropogenic activities in an arid region of China, Kubuqi Desert. Our study showed that 67.64% of the pixels of fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) increased in 2020 in comparison with those of 1986. The FVC exhibited a significant greening trend (0.0011\/yr, p &lt; 0.05) in 1986\u20132020 as a whole. This greening trend revealed two distinct periods separated by a turning point in 2001. There was no clear trend of FVC before 2001, and then there was a dramatically greening trend since 2001 in most regions of the study area. The increasing rate (0.0036\/yr) in the later period was three times higher than the entire period. The accelerated increasing trend was due to the variable compound effects of climate and human activities. The correlation between FVC and precipitation was mainly positive, which outweighs the significantly negative correlation between vegetation and temperature. However, both climatic factors cannot well explain the trends of vegetation dynamics, implying a possible role for human activities. Generally, climate change and anthropogenic activities contributed 42.15% and 57.85% to the overall vegetation variations in 1986\u20132020. Specifically, the relative role of the two factors was vastly different in two distinct periods. Climate change led the dominant roles (58.68%) in the vegetation variations in 1986\u20132001, while anthropogenic activities dominated (86.79%) in driving vegetation recovery in the period after 2001. Due to the massive ecological conservation programs such as the Grain for Green Project launched in 2001, substantial deserts have been transformed into grasslands and forests. This analysis highlights the ecological policies largely responsible for vegetation restoration and provides references for ecological protection and sustainable development in eco-fragile ecosystems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14205243","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,21]],"date-time":"2022-10-21T00:34:30Z","timestamp":1666312470000},"page":"5243","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Ecological Policies Dominated the Ecological Restoration over the Core Regions of Kubuqi Desert in Recent Decades"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Min","family":"Ren","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Studies of Ethnic Minorities in Northwest China, School of History and Culture, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China"}]},{"given":"Wenjiang","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Studies of Ethnic Minorities in Northwest China, School of History and Culture, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1233-4484","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Haibo","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing of Gansu Province, Heihe Remote Sensing Experimental Research Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"847","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1131634","article-title":"Global desertification: Building a science for dryland development","volume":"316","author":"Reynolds","year":"2007","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"215","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-ecolsys-121415-032311","article-title":"Structure and functioning of dryland ecosystems in a changing world","volume":"47","author":"Maestre","year":"2016","journal-title":"Annu. 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