###### Abstract  
Forest ecosystem plays a vital role in the global carbon cycle and maintaining climate stability. However, how net primary productivity (NPP) dynamics of different stand ages of forest respond to climatic change and residual (being other climate factors or human activities) still remain unclear. In this study, firstly, forests are divided into two categories based on their stand age: forests appeared before appeared before the research period (F\({}_{\text{old}}\)), and forests appeared during the research period (F\({}_{\text{new}}\)). Secondly, we improved a quantitative method of basic partial derivatives to disentangle the relative contributions of climatic factors, other climate factors, and human activities to the NPP of F\({}_{\text{old}}\) and F\({}_{\text{new}}\). Then, different scenarios were simulated to identify the dominant drivers for forest restoration and degradation. In this study, we hypothesized the residual of F\({}_{\text{old}}\) was other climate factors rather than human activities. Our results revealed that from 2000 to 2019, F\({}_{\text{old}}\) and F\({}_{\text{new}}\) of NPP in Yangtze River Basin showed a significant increment trend and precipitation was the major positive contributor among all of the climatic factors. We found that, in F\({}_{\text{old}}\), climate change and other climate factors contributed 9.77% and 28.33%, respectively, in explaining NPP. This finding unsupported our initial hypothesis and implied that residuals should be human activities for F\({}_{\text{old}}\). Furthermore, we found that human activities dominate either restoration or degradation of F\({}_{\text{new}}\). This result may be due to the attenuated human disturbances and strengthened forest management, such as ecological policies, forest tending, closing the land for reforestation, etc. Therefore, based on disentangling the two types of factors, we concluded that human activities govern the forest change, and imply that the environment-friendly forest managements may favorite to improving the forest NPP against the impacts of climate change. Thus, effective measures and policies are suggested implement in controlling forest degradation in facing climate change. residual; the old forest productivity; human activities; climate change; net primary productivity 16 September 2021 18 September 20  
usually considered as a proxy for forest restoration or degradation [4; 5]. An increasing NPP trend means forest restoration while a decreasing trend indicates forest degradation. Generally, forests are primarily affected by both climatic factors and human activities. Precipitation, temperature, and solar radiation are three primary climate drivers for forest NPP [6]. Their effects vary across climate zones, geographic types, and forest types [3; 7]. For example, the temperature is considered as a critical factor for forest restoration in high-latitudes and high latitude regions, precipitation in arid and semiarid areas, and solar radiation in tropical zones, respectively [3; 7; 8; 9]. With climate change, climate factors such as extreme precipitation, drought, and high temperature can also lead to forest degradation [9; 10]. In addition, human activities are another main driving force of forest dynamics. Some human activities (such as urbanization and huge population growth) may be the main driving forces for forest degradation [11], while other activities (such as returning farmland to forestland, mountain closure, and afforestation) promotes forest restoration [9; 12; 13]. However, the relative effects on NPP from climate change and human activities are still unclear, and it is still ambiguous which factors, natural factors or human factors, dominate forest restoration and degradation. Therefore, it is critical to separate the relative roles of the two drivers. To date, Great efforts have been made to separately quantify the impacts of climate change and human activities on forest ecosystems.