Project Period: January 2023-December 2025

Funding Source/Donor Organization: Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Forestry

Executing Agency: Chinese Academy of Forestry

Contact: Shi Zhongjie: email:shijie1204@163.com

Brief Introduction:

The northern semi-arid area is an important area for the construction of three North Shelterbelt in China, which plays a very important role in ecological services. However, the continuous drought has led to serious decline, dry top and even large-scale death of forests in semi-arid areas, which may change the structure, process and function of forests, and then affect their ecological services. The causes and mechanisms of forest decline have always been the frontier focus of global change ecology and forest ecology. At present, a large number of studies focus on the mechanism of climate warming, especially drought affecting forest decline.

However, the understanding of the role of biological factors and soil characteristics of semi-arid forests in regulating forest decline is very limited, which seriously restricts the improvement of the prediction ability of forest growth, carbon sequestration and dynamics in semi-arid areas under the background of global warming. Understanding this mechanism may help to determine appropriate sustainable forest management countermeasures, and provide an important scientific basis for the implementation of the national "carbon neutral" strategy.