As the second major source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions
to the atmosphere, land use change significantly impacts changes
in climate. The net CO2 emissions from the human-induced land
use change were estimated in the IPCC AR5 report to be 0.9 ± 0.8
PgC yr−1 during the past decade (Ciais et al., 2013) based on land
cover data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) Global Forest Resource Assessment (FRA) (FAO, 2010).
Ecosystem services including biodiversity and water preservation
are also affected by the land cover changes including deforestation
and grassland degradation (Foley et al., 2005). Deforestation, as the
predominant type of land cover change, has raised a lot of concerns
and has therefore been extensively studied at both regional and