Extended Data Fig. 3: Predicted areas with the difference between maximum allowable grazing pressure and current grazing pressure.

a,b, For the contrasting effect (a) or synergistic effect (b) of aridity and grazing pressure in China’s drylands. The blue and brown shading denotes where the maximum allowable grazing pressure is higher and lower than the current grazing level, respectively. The red lines denote the baseline drylands in 1950–2000 that are not suitable for grazing and thus where grazing is not recommended, as their maximum allowable grazing pressure is equal to zero and the current grazing pressure leads thresholds to be crossed for ecosystem attributes. The grey shading denotes drylands where the land covers are cropland, wetland or urban areas. The unshaded areas are not drylands today and therefore are outside of the range. Credit: basemaps from the Global Aridity Index database⁴² and China Data Lab⁶².