A Study of the Vegetation Growth Dynamics in the Three Rivers Source from 1982 to 2015

Abstract

The three rivers source area (The source region of the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Lancang River) has the largest area of river source areas in China, and is also an important climate-sensitive area and ecologically fragile zone. Studies on its vegetation growth dynamics are of great significance to the construction of ecological security barriers in China and the construction of ecological civilization in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region. The study investigated the vegetation dynamics in the three rivers source area by using the GIMMS NDVI dataset from January 1982 to December 2015. The results show that the monthly NDVI and multi-year average spatial distribution of NDVI values in the three river source areas follow the same trend, with the NDVI values in the Lancang and Nujiang river basins being significantly larger than those in the Yangtze river basin; while the spatial distribution of NDVI annual change rates in the three river source areas is the opposite, with the annual NDVI change rates in the Yangtze river source area being better than those in the Lancang and Nujiang river basins.