Data from: Response of net primary production to land use and climate changes in the middle-reaches of the Heihe River basin

Net primary production (NPP) supplies matter, energy, and services to
facilitate the sustainable development of human society and ecosystem. The
response mechanism of NPP to land use and climate changes is essential for
food security and biodiversity conservation but lacks a comprehensive
understanding, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. To this end,
taking the middle-reaches of the Heihe River basin (MHRB) as an example,
we uncovered the NPP responses to land use and climate changes by
integrating multi-source data (e.g., MOD17A3 NPP, land use, temperature,
and precipitation) and multiple methods. The results showed that: (1) land
use intensity (LUI) increasing, and climate warming and wetting promoted
NPP. From 2000 to 2014, the LUI, temperature and precipitation of MHRB
increased by 1.46, 0.58 °C and 15.76 mm, respectively, resulting in an
increase of 14.62 gC/m2 in annual average NPP. (2) The conversion of
low-yield cropland to forest and grassland increased NPP. Although the
widespread conversion of unused land and grassland to cropland boosted
both LUI and NPP, it was not conducive to ecosystem sustainability and
stability due to huge water consumption and human-appropriated NPP. Urban
sprawl occupied cropland, forest and grassland, and reduced NPP. (3)
Increase in temperature and precipitation generally improved NPP. The
temperature decreasing less than 1.2 °C also promoted the NPP of hardy
vegetation due to the simultaneous precipitation increasing. However,
warming-induced water stress compromised the NPP in arid sparse grassland
and deserts. Cropland had greater NPP and NPP increase than natural
vegetation due to the irrigation, fertilizers and other artificial inputs
it received. Decrease in both temperature and precipitation generally
reduced NPP, but the NPP in the well-protection or less-disturbance areas
still increased slightly.