Quantitative contributions of climate change and human activities to vegetation changes over multiple time scales on the Loess Plateau

Abstract

Vegetation is a crucial component of terrestrial ecosystems, and its changes are driven mainly by a combination of climate change and human activities. This paper aims to reveal the relationship between vegetation and climate change by using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI), and to find the cause of vegetation change by performing residual analysis on the Loess Plateau during the period from 2000 to 2016. The results showed that the NDVI on the Loess Plateau exhibited an increase of 0.086 per decade, and an increasing trend was observed across 94.86% of the total area. The relationship between the NDVI and SPEI was mainly positive, and the correlation increased as the time scale of the SPEI lengthened, indicating that long-term water availability was the major climate factor affecting vegetation growth. Residual analysis indicated that climate change was responsible for 45.78% of NDVI variation, while human activities were responsible for 54.22%. In areas with degraded vegetation, the relative roles of climate change and human activities were 28.11% and 72.89%, respectively. In addition, the relative role of climate change increased with an increase in the time scales, implying that the long-term NDVI trend was more sensitive to climate change then the short-term trend. The results of this study are expected to enhance our understanding of vegetation changes under climate change and human activities and provide a scientific basis for future ecological restoration in arid regions.