The Yellow River Basin (YRB) is experiencing a critical water resource shortage due to climate change and human activities. Thoroughly understanding water resource dynamics under the dual pressures of revegetation and agricultural intensification presents significant challenges. Development of satellite-based observations for vegetation and water storage has greatly facilitated large-scale and high-resolution watershed analysis, and enables understanding their dynamics. In this study, the effects of revegetation and agricultural intensification were assessed by incorporating multiple vegetation indices and phenological methods. Regression models were developed to determine how much water variation could be attributed to vegetation change driven by these human activities, using an expanded set of vegetation features to analyze seasonal water storage variation. The results indicate that both revegetation and agricultural intensification played important roles in the decline of water storage in the YRB and showed significant heterogeneity across the basin. In semi-humid and semi-arid regions, revegetation can explain over 60 % of groundwater reduction throughout the year, while in arid areas, the primary impact was particularly revealed in summer soil moisture, with the explanation rate reaching 70 %. Water storage in the downstream croplands decreased at a rate of 18 mm·yr due to a combination of intensified irrigation and reduced precipitation. In the upstream croplands, crop structure changes and irrigation reduction led to a reduction in spring and winter water storage at a rate of 2 mm·yr. Consequently, the security of water, food, and ecosystems is challenged. This study benefits sustainable management of the YRB by providing comprehensive vegetation features and their impact on water storage.

中文翻译：

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黄河流域植被恢复和农业集约化对水储量变化的影响

由于气候变化和人类活动，黄河流域（YRB）正面临严重的水资源短缺。彻底了解植被恢复和农业集约化双重压力下的水资源动态面临着重大挑战。基于卫星的植被和水储存观测的发展极大地促进了大规模和高分辨率的流域分析，并能够了解其动态。在这项研究中，通过结合多种植被指数和物候方法来评估植被恢复和农业集约化的影响。开发了回归模型，以确定有多少水量变化可归因于这些人类活动驱动的植被变化，使用一组扩展的植被特征来分析季节性水储存变化。结果表明，植被恢复和农业集约化在长江流域水储量下降中发挥了重要作用，并且在整个流域表现出显着的异质性。在半湿润、半干旱地区，植被恢复可以解释全年地下水减少的60%以上，而在干旱地区，主要影响尤其体现在夏季土壤湿度，解释率达到70%。由于加强灌溉和降水减少，下游农田蓄水量以18毫米·年的速度减少。在上游农田，作物结构变化和灌溉减少导致春季和冬季蓄水量减少2毫米·年。因此，水、粮食和生态系统的安全受到挑战。这项研究通过提供全面的植被特征及其对蓄水的影响，有利于黄河流域的可持续管理。