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Impacts of grassland types and vegetation cover changes on surface air temperature in the regions of temperate grassland of China

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Abstract

The sensitivity of surface air temperature response to different grassland types and vegetation cover changes in the regions of temperate grassland of China was analyzed by observation minus reanalysis (OMR) method. The basis of the OMR approach is that reanalysis data are insensitive to local surface properties, so the temperature differences between surface observations and reanalysis can be attributed to land effects. Results showed that growing-season air temperature increased by 0.592 °C/decade in the regions of temperate grassland of China, with about 31 % of observed warming associated with the effects of grassland types and vegetation cover changes. For different grassland types, the growing-season OMR trend was the strongest for temperate desert steppe (0.259 °C/decade) and the weakest for temperate meadow (0.114 °C/decade). Our results suggest that the stronger intraseasonal changes of grassland vegetation are present, the more sensitive the OMR trend responds to the intraseasonal vegetation cover changes. In August and September, the OMR of temperate meadow showed a weak cooling trend. For temperate meadow, about 72.2 and 72.6 % of surface cooling were explained by both grassland type and increase of vegetation cover for August and September, respectively. For temperate steppe and temperate desert steppe, due to the limited soil moisture and little evaporative cooling feedback, the vegetation changes have no significant effect on the surface air temperature. These results indicate that the impact of grassland types and vegetation cover changes should be considered when projecting further climate change in the temperate grassland region of China.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 41330640) for funding this work. We also thank Dr. Baba Diabate for his support in English language revision.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China

    Xiangjin Shen, Pujia Yu & Daowei Zhou

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiangjin Shen

  3. College of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China

    Binhui Liu

  4. Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation (Alliance between NSW Department of Primary Industries and Charles Sturt University), Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, Pine Gully Road, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2650, Australia

    Guangdi Li

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  1. Xiangjin Shen
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  2. Binhui Liu
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Correspondence to Daowei Zhou.

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Shen, X., Liu, B., Li, G. et al. Impacts of grassland types and vegetation cover changes on surface air temperature in the regions of temperate grassland of China. Theor Appl Climatol 126, 141–150 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1567-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1567-y

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