Declining Effect of Precipitation on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index of Grasslands in the Inner Mongolian Plateau, 1982–2010

Grasslands play an irreplaceable role in maintaining carbon balance and stabilizing the entire Earth’s ecosystem. Although the grasslands in Inner Mongolia are sensitive and vulnerable to climate change, a generalized effect of climate change on the grasslands is still unavailable. In this study, we...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied sciences 2021-09, Vol.11 (18), p.8766
Main Authors: Li, Yanan, Wu, Dan, Yang, Liangyan, Zhou, Tiancai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Annual precipitation
Climate change
Climate effects
Ecosystems
Grasslands
Inner Mongolian Plateau
normalized difference vegetation index
Normalized difference vegetative index
Precipitation
Regression analysis
temperature
Temperature effects
Vegetation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Grasslands play an irreplaceable role in maintaining carbon balance and stabilizing the entire Earth’s ecosystem. Although the grasslands in Inner Mongolia are sensitive and vulnerable to climate change, a generalized effect of climate change on the grasslands is still unavailable. In this study, we analyzed the effects of annual mean precipitation and annual mean temperature on the normalized difference vegetation index from 1982 to 2010 on the Inner Mongolia Plateau. Our results indicated that the normalized difference vegetation index was mostly affected by precipitation, followed by temperature. Spatially, temperature and precipitation had greater effects on normalized difference vegetation index in dry regions than in wet ones. In time series, the effect of precipitation on normalized difference vegetation index had significantly decreased from 1982 to 2010 (R2 = 0.11, p > 0.05). However, the effect of temperature on normalized difference vegetation index remained stable. The high variation effect of precipitation on normalized difference vegetation index was due to the significant decrease in precipitation from 1980 to 2010. Thus, 35.47% and 0.56% of the dynamic of normalized difference vegetation index from 1982 to 2010 was accounted for by the precipitation and temperature, respectively. Our findings highlighted that grasslands are adaptable to the significant increase in temperature, but are sensitive to the decrease in precipitation on the Inner Mongolia Plateau.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app11188766