Satellite-Observed Effects from Ozone Pollution and Climate Change on Growing-Season Vegetation Activity over China during 1982–2020

Zhaosheng Wang

doi:10.3390/atmos12111390

Abstract

Remote sensing vegetation index data contain important information about the effects of ozone pollution, climate change and other factors on vegetation growth. However, the absence of long-term observational data on surface ozone pollution and neglected air pollution-induced effects on vegetation growth have made it difficult to conduct in-depth studies on the long-term, large-scale ozone pollution effects on vegetation health. In this study, a multiple linear regression model was developed, based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data, ozone mass mixing ratio (OMR) data at 1000 hPa, and temperature (T), precipitation (P) and surface net radiation (SSR) data during 1982–2020 to quantitatively assess the impact of ozone pollution and climate change on vegetation growth in China on growing season. The OMR data showed an increasing trend in 99.9% of regions in China over the last 39 years, and both NDVI values showed increasing trends on a spatial basis with different ozone pollution levels. Additionally, the significant correlations between NDVI and OMR, temperature and SSR indicate that vegetation activity is closely related to ozone pollution and climate change. Ozone pollution affected 12.5% of NDVI, and climate change affected 26.7% of NDVI. Furthermore, the effects from ozone pollution and climate change on forest, shrub, grass and crop vegetation were evaluated. Notably, the impact of ozone pollution on vegetation growth was 0.47 times that of climate change, indicating that the impact of ozone pollution on vegetation growth cannot be ignored. This study not only deepens the understanding of the effects of ozone pollution and climate change on vegetation growth but also provides a research framework for the large-scale monitoring of air pollution on vegetation health using remote sensing vegetation data.

Highlights

Many studies on the impact of climate change on vegetation activity quantitatively assess the extent of the impact of climate change on vegetation activity and attempt to deeply understand the relationship between them [1,2,3,4,5,6], providing an important cognitive basis
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In this study, combining long-term continuous (1982–2020) remote sensing normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data with ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) reanalysis near-surface ozone mass mixing ratio (OMR) data and meteorological element data, we quantitatively evaluated the effects of ozone pollution and climate change on vegetation activity during the growing season in China

Summary

Introduction

Many studies on the impact of climate change on vegetation activity quantitatively assess the extent of the impact of climate change on vegetation activity and attempt to deeply understand the relationship between them [1,2,3,4,5,6], providing an important cognitive basis. With the deepening of research, people have gradually realized that there are many factors driving surface vegetation change (for example, human activities, air pollution, ozone pollution, etc.). People began to focus on the effects of climate change combined with other factors (e.g., human activities) on vegetation change [2,3,7,8,9]. Some studies have proven that climate change and air pollution are the driving forces for changes in surface vegetation [8,12,13,14]. The relationship between air pollution and vegetation health has been ignored It is deeply intertwined with the issue of climate change, making it increasingly difficult to study the effects of air pollution on ecosystem health.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion