Climatic Niche of Vegetation Greenness Is Likely to Be Conservative in Degraded Land

Abstract

Satellite data have been widely used to study changes in vegetation greenness in geographical space; however, this change is rarely considered in climatic space. Here, the climatic niche dynamics of vegetation greenness, represented by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), was quantified in the climate space of the Loess Plateau, a piece of degraded land greening significantly from 2000 to 2018. The niche similarity test was used to examine the niche conservatism of vegetation greenness during the 19 years of restoration. The results show that the climate niche of vegetation greenness is always more similar than expected. The stability niche occupied most parts (83–98%) of their climatic niche, and niche overlap reached 0.52–0.69. Climate niche conservatism suggests that potential greenness constructed by statistical methods could be used as a criterion or baseline for ecosystem function restoration on the Loess Plateau. The study also suggests that the integrated niche similarity test in decision-making for restoration of degraded land will clarify our understanding of the climatic niche dynamics of vegetation greenness and the making of forecasts.