Abstract
As an important indicator of vegetation coverage, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) reflects the changing pattern and evolving trend of the environment. In the Loess Plateau, vegetation plays a critical role in soil and water conservation, which strongly affects the achievement of sustainable development goals. The study of the spatial distribution and temporal trends of NDVI is of great practical importance for the planning of soil and water conservation measures and the evaluation of the environmental situation. In this study, the NDVI, precipitation, land use and land cover data of the Jing River Basin were collected, the emerging hot spot patterns of the NDVI analyzed, the characteristics of spatial distribution and temporal variation of the NDVI in the basin obtained, and the impacts on NDVI from the climate changes and the land cover changes discussed. The results show that the NDVI in Jing River Basin represents a spatial trend of decreasing from northwest to southeast. The emerging hot spot analysis results show that diminishing cold spot, oscillating hot spot and intensifying hot spot are predominant patterns in the basin. The whole basin shows a statistically significant upward trend of high value aggregation of NDVI. The temporal trend of NDVI in the basin varies from − 0.0171 to 0.0185 per year. The increasing trend of vegetation coverage in the basin is statistically significant. The positive correlation between the NDVI and the precipitation mainly observed upstream of the basin reveals that the growth of vegetation in the Loess Plateau is more dependent on the water supply from the precipitation. Land cover transition patterns and the land use patterns also impact the spatial–temporal trends of the vegetation coverage in the basin. The study results may be helpful for the vegetation restoration, soil and water conservation and sustainable development of the Jing River Basin.
Highlights
Vegetation is an important part of the ecosystem and an intermediate link in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (Zhang and Huang 2021)
This study aims to: (1) analyze the aggregation mode and hot spots trend of vegetation cover in the basin, (2) obtain the spatial-temporal trends of vegetation cover in the study area, and (3) discuss the relationship between vegetation and climate change, anthropological activities in the basin
The two wings of the basin had the highest value of Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)
Summary
Vegetation is an important part of the ecosystem and an intermediate link in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (Zhang and Huang 2021). It has the functions of transporting water, carbon sequestration, releasing oxygen and so on (Wang et al 2016, Paustian 2014). Vegetation coverage, to a large extent, represents the state of the terrestrial environment and ecosystem. Vegetation coverage is affected by anthropological activities and climate change, directly influencing regional socio-economic development, the stability and safety of the environment and the ecosystem (Jin et al 2021)
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