Abstract
Spatiotemporal vegetation patterns are of great importance for regional development. As one of the largest transnational rivers in China, the Yarlung Zangbo River in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau was selected as the study site, and the spatiotemporal patterns of vegetation during 1998–2014 were analyzed using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The results show that the NDVI increased with decreasing elevation, and the largest value was observed for the broadleaf forest. The lag time of NDVI to precipitation for most of the vegetation units was distinguished as approximately one month. In the region with an elevation of over 5000 m, the NDVI for the alpine vegetation was negatively correlated with the precipitation. Most NDVI variations were due to precipitation and temperature (approximately 75%). These results could provide a reference for ecological protection at a similar high elevation in the future.
Highlights
Worldwide decreases in vegetation have become increasingly severe in recent decades [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Elevation has been found to be the most significant land factor determining the distribution of different vegetation types [36]
Spatiotemporal patterns in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), precipitation, trends and relationships for different vegetation types in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin at annual and growing season scales were comprehensively analyzed in combination with the trend coefficient and lag time
Summary
Worldwide decreases in vegetation have become increasingly severe in recent decades [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. As an effective index for representing cover conditions and vegetation growth, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has been successfully applied worldwide [9,10,11,12,13]. As it affects the NDVI most directly, the relationship between precipitation and the NDVI is commonly analyzed. It is necessary to study the characteristics of the NDVI and the influences of precipitation and temperature on it at a high elevation for effective water resources allocation and ecological protection
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