Abstract
BackgroundVegetation in the Mongolian Plateau is very sensitive to climate change, which has a significant impact on the regulation of terrestrial carbon cycle.MethodsWe analyzed spatio-temporal changes of both growing season and the seasonal Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) using simple linear trend analysis. Besides, correlation analysis was applied to explore the climate factors’ effects on vegetation growth at temporal and spatial scale. Potential effects of human factors on vegetation growth were also explored by residual trend analysis.ResultsThe results indicated that vegetation growth showed a greening trend in the Mongolian Plateau over the past 30 years. At the temporal scale, the growing season NDVI showed an insignificant increasing trend (at a rate of 0.0003 yr−1). At the spatial scale, a large region (53.8% of the whole Mongolian Plateau) with an increasing growing season NDVI, was primarily located in the southern and northern parts of the plateau. The correlation analysis suggested that temperature and precipitation were the main limiting factors that affected vegetation growth in spring and the growing season, respectively. The residual trend analysis showed that human activities primarily stimulated the growth of grasslands and shrublands, while croplands displayed a decreasing trend due to human disturbances, implying that anthropogenic factors may lead to croplands abandonment in favor of grasslands restoration. Our results provided detailed spatial and temporal changes of vegetation growth, and explored how climate and human factors affected vegetation growth, which may offer baseline data and scientific suggestions for local land and resources management, and facilitate the sustainable development of the terrestrial ecosystems.
Highlights
The fifth assessment report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that the climate of Northern Hemisphere has become growing warmer over the past 30 years (Allen et al, 2014)
We explored the responses of vegetation dynamics to climate factors for different plant types using correlation analysis
The overall questions we addressed are how climate and anthropogenic factors affect the interannual and seasonal Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) changes over the whole plateau over a longer period of time (1982–2015), and how such impacts vary in different vegetation types over the plateau
Summary
The fifth assessment report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that the climate of Northern Hemisphere has become growing warmer over the past 30 years (Allen et al, 2014). These changes in vegetation may incorporate feedback into climate change (Wu, 2016). Correlation analysis was applied to explore the climate factors’ effects on vegetation growth at temporal and spatial scale. Potential effects of human factors on vegetation growth were explored by residual trend analysis. The results indicated that vegetation growth showed a greening trend in the Mongolian Plateau over the past 30 years. Our results provided detailed spatial and temporal changes of vegetation growth, and explored how climate and human factors affected vegetation growth, which may offer baseline data and scientific suggestions for local land and resources management, and facilitate the sustainable development of the terrestrial ecosystems
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