Vegetation greening decreased one-third of soil erosion by water in China from 1982 to 2021

Over the past few decades, widespread vegetation greening has occurred globally, with China exhibiting the most pronounced increase. Integrating multi-source satellite vegetation indices and land-use data, this study employs RUSLE and trend analysis to characterize greening's impact on soil erosion in China. From 1982 to 2021, China exhibited a significant greening trend, with 68.1% of its vegetated area showing significant increases in vegetation growth ( P < 0.05), whereas only 2.5% experienced significant browning trend. Over the past 40 years, vegetation greening has led to a reduction of soil erosion rate (SER) and soil erosion amount (SEA) by 35.9% and 41.1%, with an average decrease of 0.17 t ha -1 y -1 and 0.15 Pg y -1 , respectively. However, these mitigation effects were spatially heterogeneous: significant erosion reduction was concentrated in key ecological project areas like the southwestern Karst region and the northwestern Loess plateau region. In contrast, mitigation was negligible in arid areas like the northern windy sand region. Nationally, the reduction of erosion by forestland (SER: 6.63 t ha -1 y -1 ; SEA: 4.09 Pg) was larger than cropland (SER: 1.51 t ha -1 y -1 ; SEA: 0.96 Pg) and grassland (SER: 1.37 t ha -1 y -1 ; SEA: 0.73 Pg), emphasizing the critical role of forests in erosion control. These findings provide a scientific basis for optimizing vegetation configuration in ecologically fragile regions and maintaining existing vegetation health to mitigate soil erosion.