Yuan et al. (2026) Integrating ecosystem adaptability into drought resilience assessment: a case study of the Yellow River Basin, China

Identification

• Journal: CATENA
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-03-05
• Authors: Mengjia Yuan, Guojing Gan, Jingyi Bu, Yongqiang Zhang, Yanchun Gao
• DOI: 10.1016/j.catena.2026.109937

Research Groups

• Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
• University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
• State Key Laboratory of Lake and Watershed Science for Water Security, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
• Earth Systems Research Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA

Short Summary

This study developed an integrated framework to assess ecosystem drought resilience by incorporating adaptability as a third dimension alongside resistance and recovery. Applying this framework to the Yellow River Basin (1982–2017), the research found opposite trends and trade-offs between resistance and recovery, with overall resilience increasing over time.

Objective

• To develop and apply an integrated framework that incorporates ecosystem adaptability as a third core dimension, alongside resistance and recovery, to comprehensively assess drought resilience.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Yellow River Basin (YRB), China
• Temporal Scale: 1982–2017

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Integrated framework incorporating resistance, recovery, and adaptability; Entropy weight method for constructing a composite resilience indicator.
• Data sources: Original data for calculating ecosystem resilience of the Yellow River Basin, China.

Main Results

• Resistance and recovery exhibited opposite trends and a clear trade-off across different ecosystems, reflecting adaptability's regulatory role.
• Forests showed the lowest resistance but the highest recovery, while grasslands displayed the opposite pattern; rain-fed croplands and shrublands were intermediate.
• Temporally, resistance, adaptability, and overall resilience significantly increased (p < 0.001) across ecosystems, whereas recovery declined (p < 0.001).
• Key drivers of ecosystem resilience metrics included seasonal temperature variability, soil-topography conditions (available water capacity and elevation), and drought characteristics (severity and frequency).
• The proposed framework produced consistent results and effectively detected early-phase resilience decline compared to the first-order lagged autocorrelation coefficient (AR(1)) method.

Contributions

• Provides a novel, three-dimensional perspective on ecosystem resilience by explicitly integrating adaptability into assessment frameworks.
• Develops a comparable composite resilience indicator using the entropy weight method.
• Offers insights for targeted ecosystem management strategies in dryland regions like the Yellow River Basin.
• Demonstrates the framework's ability to detect early-phase resilience decline, potentially improving early warning systems.

Funding

Not provided in the given text.

Citation

@article{Yuan2026Integrating,
  author = {Yuan, Mengjia and Gan, Guojing and Bu, Jingyi and Zhang, Yongqiang and Gao, Yanchun},
  title = {Integrating ecosystem adaptability into drought resilience assessment: a case study of the Yellow River Basin, China},
  journal = {CATENA},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.catena.2026.109937},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2026.109937}
}