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Interdecadal changes of vegetation transition zones and their responses to climate in Northeast China

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Abstract

According to the concept of ecoclimatic factor’s guarantee rate, this study purposes to quantitatively analyze the interdecadal changes of the four major vegetation transition zones in Northeast China based on the warmth index first developed by Kira and the humidity index put forward by Xu during the period 1961–2007. On this basis, the responses of the interdecadal changes of vegetation transition zones to climate were analyzed. The results indicated that latitudinal vegetation transition zones had been moving laggingly to higher latitude (shifting upwards in altitude) and that longitudinal vegetation transition zones had been shifting slowly toward humid area in the whole sequence, whereas the shifts were fluctuant in stages. The changes of vegetation transition zones of Northeast China expressed in distribution and bandwidth responded to climate change, not only in the whole sequence but also in stages.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973) (grant no. 2009CB426305). The meteorological data was provided by National Weather Service (NWS), and for this, the authors acknowledge Dr Xiangjun Meng. We also wish to thank the reviewers for the valuable and helpful comments on our paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China

    Haibo Du, Zhengfang Wu & Ming Li

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  1. Haibo Du
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  2. Zhengfang Wu
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Correspondence to Zhengfang Wu.

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Du, H., Wu, Z. & Li, M. Interdecadal changes of vegetation transition zones and their responses to climate in Northeast China. Theor Appl Climatol 106, 179–188 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-011-0432-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-011-0432-x

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