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Influences of Climate Extremes on NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) in the Poyang Lake Basin, China

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Abstract

Based on long-term NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) derived from Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Study (GIMMS) and daily meteorological observations from 14 stations in the Poyang Lake Basin, this study investigated the relationship between vegetation variation and climatic extremes during 1982–2006. Ten typical indices were adopted to describe climatic extreme, including two precipitation-related and eight temperature-related indices. Correlation analysis shows that monthly averaged NDVI variations are generally determined by temperature but not precipitation extremes. Positive correlations appear between NDVI and temperature indices, and the correlations are more significant in spring and autumn. Significant negative correlations are found in summer and winter between NDVI and precipitation-related indices. In addition, spatial heterogeneity analysis shows that NDVI is more vulnerable to climate change for the middle basin than other regions. Finally, we demonstrate that NDVI can currently responds to temperature extremes or with a lag of 1 month. With respect to precipitation extremes, the strongest response may occur 2 months later. Our study highlights the role of climate extremes to the NDVI, and is helpful to improve the understanding of vegetation vulnerability to climate fluctuations.

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Acknowledgments

We are thankful to Thomas Fischer (Eberhard Karls University) for the assistance of preparing the manuscript. This study is financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No.2012CB417005 and No.2013CB430205) and the National Nature Sciences Foundation (No.41375099, No.91337108, No.41371121 and No.41271034). The authors express their gratitude to the National Climate Center (NCC) of China Meteorological Administration (CMA) for providing the data. The authors also are very thankful to the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions and comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Zhiqiang Tan, Hui Tao, Jiahu Jiang & Qi Zhang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing, 100049, China

    Zhiqiang Tan

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  1. Zhiqiang Tan
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Correspondence to Hui Tao.

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Tan, Z., Tao, H., Jiang, J. et al. Influences of Climate Extremes on NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) in the Poyang Lake Basin, China. Wetlands 35, 1033–1042 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-015-0692-9

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