Response of vegetation dynamics to climatic variables across a precipitation gradient in the Northeast China Transect |
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| Authors: | Lexin Zhang Danwu Zhang Qinshu Li |
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| Institution: | Sanjiangyuan Collaborative Innovation Centre, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China |
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| Abstract: | This study investigated the influence of climatic variables on the spatio-temporal variation of vegetation growth using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data and climate data from 2000 to 2013 in the Northeast China Transect. Partial correlation and linear regression methods were applied to quantify the response of the growing season NDVI to climatic variables. Gradient analysis was used to investigate how the response changes across the precipitation gradient over the transect. The results show that, at the spatial scale, NDVI increases with precipitation in grassland, and the spatial sensitivity is 0.001/mm. At the temporal scale, grassland NDVI is less correlated with precipitation in wet areas where precipitation exceeds a threshold of 250 mm. The temporal sensitivity of grassland NDVI to precipitation is 0.0003–0.0006/mm. Positive correlations between NDVI and temperature dominate in forest areas, and forest NDVI is sensitive to temperature by 0.06–0.12/°C. |
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| Keywords: | normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Northeast China Transect (NECT) partial correlation spatial and temporal sensitivity gradient analysis |
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