Exploring the Ecological Climate Effects of Different Land Use Changes in the Yangtze River Basin from 2000 to 2020

Abstract

Land use/cover change (LUCC) can change the energy balance of the earth’s surface by altering its biophysical properties (surface albedo), and it also has an important impact on the ecological climate. In this paper, using surface energy balance algorithms, the differences in energy balance and the resulting ecoclimatic effects under different land use changes in the Yangtze River basin from 2000 to 2020 were analyzed. The results showed that: (1) from 2000 to 2020, the energy uptake of surface net radiation (Rs) in the Yangtze River basin showed a downward trend with increasing intensity of impact from human activities. This indicated that human activities could weaken the positive trend of Rs uptake and increase the warming effect; (2) Rs and latent heat flux (LHF) showed an upward trend, which was more obvious in natural and semi-natural regions and mixed pixel regions; (3) LHF−Rs energy uptake showed a decreasing trend, indicating that the effect of Rs on surface absorbed energy was greater than that of LHF, which was more significant in old urban areas and urban expansion areas. This research highlights the variation in the surface energy budgets of the five land use types with different levels of human activities. This will provide a theoretical reference for future land planning and management. It will also provide a theoretical basis for judging climate change trends and urban heat island effects in the Yangtze River basin from the perspective of bio-geophysics.