Complex effects of moisture conditions and temperature enhanced vegetation growth in the Arid/humid transition zone in Northern China.

Ecosystems in the arid/humid transition zone (AHTZ) of northern China are highly sensitive to climate change and human activities. Accurately assessing the impact of climate change on these ecosystems is important for effectively reducing the risks faced by them under future climate change. In this study, the leaf area index during the selected growing season (LAIGS) was used as an indicator for vegetation activity. After comparison different potential indicators, the growing season temperature (TGS) was used to indicate temperature, and the growing season aridity index (AIGS), which considers the regional water budget, was used to indicate moisture rather than precipitation, which is used more commonly. Correlation analysis and residual trends were used to study the influence of climatic and non-climatic factors on vegetation activity in the AHTZ from 1982 to 2016. The results for regions where LAIGS increased significantly (0.037/10 yr, 53.58% of the study area), the regions where LAIGS dominated by non-climatic factors (18.40%) was larger than areas dominated by climatic factors (9.61%). However, most (25.57%) of the regions in the selected study area were mainly driven by both climatic and non-climatic factors. In about half (49.73%) of the climate-affected regions, significant changes in LAIGS were driven jointly by TGS and AIGS. These regions were mainly in the northern and western Loess Plateau. The regions where changes were driven mainly by AIGS, and those where changes were driven mainly by TGS, each accounted for nearly a quarter of climate-affected regions (24.87% and 25.40%, respectively). The former regions were on the western Songliao Plain, the northern North China Plain, and the northern Loess Plateau, and the latter regions were in the northern Greater Khingan Mountains, on the southern North China Plain, in the western mountains of North China, and on the southern Loess Plateau.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation

Yunhe Yin, Haoyu Deng, Danyang Ma. Complex effects of moisture conditions and temperature enhanced vegetation growth in the Arid/humid transition zone in Northern China. The Science of the total environment. 2021 Sep 07;805:150152

PMID: 34543796

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