The Net Influence of Drought on Grassland Productivity over the Past 50 Years

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the grassland productivity response to drought under the background of climate change. There is an established lag impact on the response of grassland ecosystems to drought events, which may have additional effects on subsequent drought events. Meanwhile, due to climate change interference, the influence of drought on grassland productivity over the past 50 years is not simply equal to the algebraic sum of all the historical drought events. In the Inner Mongolia grassland, precipitation deficit plays a leading role in causing drought. Therefore, taking into consideration the impacts of drought lag effect and climate change, in this paper, we focus on the net influence of drought on grassland productivity over the past 50 years on the basis of long-term precipitation deficit, we identify the interference effect from different climate factors (precipitation and temperature) by using different scenario simulation tests, and therefore, further clarify the net influence on the grassland productivity of Inner Mongolia over the past 50 years.