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Determining the contributions of climate change and human activities to the vegetation NPP dynamics in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China, from 2000 to 2015

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Abstract

Reflecting on the change in the global biodiversity pattern, the Tibetan Plateau, considered to be a “natural laboratory” for analyzing environmental change in China and around the world, has suffered profound changes in the vegetation ecosystem. This study introduces the gravity center model and geographical detectors to examine and discuss the spatial-temporal change pattern and the driving mechanism behind vegetation net primary production (NPP) in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from the year 2000 to 2015 while also quantitatively classifying the relative roles incorporated in the NPP change process. The study found that (1) from 2000 to 2015, the annual average NPP of the Tibetan Plateau demonstrated a declining trend from southeast to northwest. (2) The gravity center of vegetation NPP on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau seems to have shifted eastward in the past 16 years, indicating that the level of vegetation NPP in the east depicts a greater increment and growth rate than the west. (3) In the arid regions, temperature and rainfall appear as the dominant factors for vegetation NPP, while slope and aspect parameters have constantly assumed dominancy for the same in the tropical rainforest-monsoon ecological zone in southeastern Tibet. (4) The structure of vegetation NPP exhibits an interaction between human and natural factors, which enhances the influence of single factors. (5) Considering the global ecological change and related human activities, certain differences are observed in the dominant and interaction factors for different study periods and ecological subregions in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The research results could prove conclusive for vegetation ecological protection in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Open Research Fund of the Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. 2019LDE006); University-Industry Collaborative Education Program (grant no.201902208005); Open Foundation of MOE Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems, Lanzhou University, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant no. lzujbky-2020-kb01); Open Fund of Key Laboratory for Digital Land and Resources of Jiangxi Province, East China University of Technology (grant no. DLLJ202002); Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program (grant no. J18KA181); Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Geomatics and Digital Technology of Shandong Province; Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Geomatics Technology and Application Key Laboratory of Qinghai Province (grant no. QHDX-2019-04); Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (grant no. ZR2018BD001); and Special Support for Strategic Leading Science and Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDA2002040203).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Architectural Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 255000, Shandong, China

    Bing Guo, Baomin Han, Shuting Chen, Yue Liu & Wenna Yang

  2. Key Laboratory for Digital Land and Resources of Jiangxi Province, East China University of Technology, Nanchang, 330013, China

    Bing Guo

  3. Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Bing Guo

  4. Key Laboratory of Geomatics and Digital Technology of Shandong Province, Qingdao, 266590, China

    Bing Guo

  5. Geomatics Technology and Application key Laboratory of Qinghai Province, Xining, 810001, China

    Bing Guo

  6. State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Fei Yang

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  1. Bing Guo
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  2. Baomin Han
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  3. Fei Yang
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  4. Shuting Chen
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  5. Yue Liu
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Correspondence to Bing Guo, Baomin Han or Fei Yang.

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Guo, B., Han, B., Yang, F. et al. Determining the contributions of climate change and human activities to the vegetation NPP dynamics in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China, from 2000 to 2015. Environ Monit Assess 192, 663 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08606-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08606-6

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