The effect of different ecosystems on groundwater consumption in an agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China from an innovative perspective

Water has always been the core resource for ecological security and social development of human life, especially in arid regions. The effects of different land-use types on the local groundwater resources were studied in Guyuan county, Hebei province, China. The results showed that the higher biomass was measured in cabbage, corn silage, potatoes, and oat plots, and the least biomass was measured in the natural grassland. The greatest fresh:dry ratio of biomass and water contents in cabbage was 24.2 and 155.4 t/hm2, respectively. Potatoes, corn silage, and oats had higher water contents, which were 72.4, 66.3, and 37.0 t/hm2, respectively. Driven by economic interests, vegetables and potatoes that were grown in the local area used a large amount of water and were mainly sold to the other parts of the country or even abroad. The high water usage is a threat to groundwater resources and the local ecological security. In the future, both the economic benefits and emergy should be analyzed to determine the real value and to objectively evaluate the input and the output of the ecosystem to save scarce ecological resources and to protect the local ecological security. Rain-fed artificial grassland including Chinese leymus and corn silage has a high development potential from the perspective of water consumption and productivity. © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.