Abstract

The 30-year normalized-difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series from AVHRR/MODIS satellite sensors was used in this study to assess the regional vegetation dynamic changes in the Tao River Basin, which cuts across the Eastern Tibetan Plateau (ETP) and the Southwestern Loess Plateau (SLP). First, principal component and correlation analyses were carried out to determine the key climatic variables driving ecological change in the region. Then, regression models were tested to correlate NDVI with the selected climatic variables to determine their predictive power. Finally, Sen’s slope method was used to determine how terrestrial vegetation has responded to regional climate change in the region. The results indicated an average winter season NDVI value of 0.14 in the ETP but only 0.04 in the SLP. Primarily driven by increasing temperature, vegetation growth has generally been enhanced since 1981; spring NDVI increased by 0.03 every 10 years in the ETP and 0.02 in the SLP. Further, results from trend analyses suggest vegetation growth in the ETP shifted to earlier-start and earlier-end dates, however in the SLP, the growing season has been extended with an earlier-start and later-end date. The precipitation threshold for vegetation germination, measured by the cumulative spring rainfall, was found to be 44 mm for both the ETP and SLP.

Details

Title
Regional vegetation dynamics and its response to climate change—a case study in the Tao River Basin in Northwestern China
Author
Li, Changbin 1 ; Qi, Jiaguo 2 ; Yang, Linshan 3 ; Wang, Shuaibing 3 ; Yang, Wenjin 3 ; Zhu, Gaofeng 3 ; Zou, Songbing 4 ; Zhang, Feng 5 

 Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, People’s Republic of China; Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA 
 Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, People’s Republic of China; Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA 
 Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, People’s Republic of China 
 Cold and Arid Regions Environment and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, People’s Republic of China 
 Key Laboratory of Arid and Grassland Agro-Ecology (Ministry of Education), Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, People’s Republic of China 
Publication year
2014
Publication date
Dec 2014
Publisher
IOP Publishing
e-ISSN
17489326
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2550690267
Copyright
© 2014. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.