Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Impacts of changes in climate variability on regional vegetation in China: NDVI-based analysis from 1982 to 2000

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Ecological Research

Abstract

Three methods were used to distinguish the characteristics of changes in climate variability and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) during the period from 1982 to 2000 in China. Great changes in climate variability and an increased trend in NDVI were observed. The changes in precipitation variability were greater than the changes in temperature variability in each month, which is attributed to changes in the monsoon system in East Asia. The abrupt changes in climate and NDVI were more significant in 1983 than in the other years due to the impacts of El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Using these results, the influences of changes in climate variability on vegetation were studied in the whole nation, and eight regions were defined according to the vegetation division map of China. The results show that abrupt climate changes at a small scale cannot cause abrupt NDVI changes directly. At a nationwide level, over a longer time scale the persistence of above/below average temperature determines the changes in NDVI; at a shorter time scale, changes in the magnitude of precipitation influence NDVI significantly. Such regional climate variability affects vegetation in different ways owing to the diversity of vegetation types, climatic conditions and topography of the land.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Barbosa HA, Huete AR, Baethgen WE (2006) A 20-year study of NDVI variability over the Northeast Region of Brazil. J Arid Environ 67:288–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonan GB, Levis S, Sitch S, Vertenstein M, Oleson KW (2003) A dynamic global vegetation model for use with climate models: concepts and description of simulated vegetation dynamics. Global Change Biol 9:1543–1566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braganza K, Karoly DJ, Hirst AC, Stott P, Stouffer RJ, Tett SFB (2004) Simple indices of global climate variability and change part: attribution of climate change during the twentieth century. Clim Dyn 22:823–838

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Camberlin P, Martiny N, Philippon N, Richard Y (2007) Determinants of the interannual relationships between remote sensed photosynthetic activity and rainfall in tropical Africa. Remote Sens Environ 106:199–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crucifix M, Betts RA, Cox PM (2005) Vegetation and climate variability: a GCM modeling study. Clim Dyn 24:457–467

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Editorial Committee of Vegetation of China (1980) Vegetation of China, Science Press, Beijing

  • Fang JY, Piao SL, He JS, Ma WH (2003) Increasing terrestrial vegetation activity in China, 1982–1999. Sci China (C) 47:229–240

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu C, Wang Q (1992) The definition and detection of the abrupt climatic change. Sci Atmos Sin 16:482–493

    Google Scholar 

  • Funk CC, Brown ME (2006) Intra-seasonal NDVI change projections in semi-arid Africa. Remote Sens Environ 101:249–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao Q, Yu M, Yang XS (2000) An analysis of sensitivity of terrestrial ecosystem in China to climatic change using spatial simulation. Clim Change 47:373–400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi F, Bi X, Pal JS (2004) Mean interannual variability and trends in a regional climate change experiment over Europe. I. Present-day climate (1961–1990). Clim Dyn 22:733–756

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holben BN (1986) Characterization of maximum value composites from temporal AVHRR data. Int J Remote Sens 7:1417–1434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Climate change 2001: the scientific basis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York

  • Jiang J, Mendelssohn R, Schwing F, Fraedrich K (2002) Coherency detection of multiscale abrupt changes in historic Nile flood levels. Geophys Res Lett 29:1121–1124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kogan FN (2000) Satellite-observed sensitivity of world land ecosystems to El Niño/La Nina. Remote Sens Environ 74:445–462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucht W, Prentice IC, Myneni RB, Sitch S, Friedlingstein P, Cramer W, Bousquet P, Buermann W, Smith B (2002) Climate control of the high-latitude vegetation greening trend and Pinatubo effect. Science 296:1687–1689

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mann ME (2002) Large-scale climate variability and connections with the middle east in past centuries. Clim Change 33:287–314

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell TD, Jones PD (2005) An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids. Int J Climatol 25:693–712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ni J, Sykes MT, Prentice IC, Cramer W (2000) Modeling the vegetation of China using the process-based equilibrium terrestrial biosphere model BIOME3. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 9:463–479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ni J, Harrison SP, Prentice IC, Kutzbach JE, Sitch S (2006) Impact of climate variability on present and Holocene vegetation: a model-based study. Ecol Model 191:469–486

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Notaro M, Liu ZY, Gallimore R, Vavrus SJ, Kutzbach JE, Prentice IC, Jacob RL (2005) Simulated and observed preindustrial to modern vegetation and climate changes. J Clim 18:3650–3671

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piao SL, Fang JY, Ji W, Guo QH, Ke JH, Tao S (2004) Variation in a satellite-based vegetation index in relation to climate in China. Journal of Vegetation Science 15:219–226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piao SL, Mohammat A, Fang JY, Cai Q, Feng JM (2006) NDVI-based increase in growth of temperate grasslands and its response to climate changes in China. Glob Environ Change 16:340–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richard Y, Poccard I (1998) A statistical study of NDVI sensitivity to seasonal and interannual rainfall variations in Southern Africa. Int J Remote Sens 19:2907–2920

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salinger MJ (2005) Climate variability and change: past, present and future—an overview. Clim Change 70:9–29

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar S, Kafatos M (2004) Interannual variability of vegetation over the India sub-continent and its relation to the different meteorological parameters. Remote Sens Environ 90:268–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sivakumar MVK, Das HP, Brunini O (2005) Impacts of present and future climate variability and change on agriculture and forestry in the arid and semi-arid tropics. Clim Change 70:31–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Su MF, Wang HJ (2007) Relationship and its instability of ENSO-Chinese variations in droughts and wet spells. Sci China (D) 50:145–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suzuki R, Masuda K, Dye DG (2007) Interannual covariability between actual evapotranspiration and PAL and GIMMS NDVIs of northern Asia. Remote Sens Environ 106:387–398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swets DL, Reed BC, Rowland JR, Marko SE (1999) A weighted least-squares approach to temporal smoothing of NDVI. In: 1999 ASPRS annual conference, from image to information. Portland, Proceedings. American society for photogrammetry and remote sensing, Bethesda, 17–21 May 1999

  • Tucker CJ, Newcomb WW, Los SO, Prince SD (1991) Mean and inter-year variation of growing-season normalized difference vegetation index for the Sahel 1981–1989. Int J Remote Sens 12:1133–1136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wen XY, Wang SW, Zhu JH, Viner D (2006) An overview of China climate change over the 20th century using UK UEA/CRU high resolution grid data. Chin J Atmos Sci 30:894–904

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang JP, Ding YJ, Chen RS (2006) Spatial and temporal of variations of alpine vegetation cover in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers of the Tibetan Plateau from 1982 to 2001. Environ Geol 50:313–322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang JY, Dong WJ, Fu CB, Wu LY (2003) The influence of vegetation cover on summer precipitation in China: a statistical analysis of NDVI and climate data. Adv Atmos Sci 20:1002–1006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang J, Zhang Q, Yang LH, Li DL (2006) Seasonal characters of regional vegetation activity in response to climate change in West China in recent 20 years. J Geogr Sci 16:78–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao YX, Wang CY, Wang SL, Tibig LV (2005) Impacts of present and future climate variability on agriculture and forestry in the humid and sub-humid tropics. Clim Change 70:73–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou LM, Tucker CJ, Kaufmann RK, Slayback D, Shabanov NV, Myneni RB (2001) Variations in northern vegetation activity inferred from satellite data of vegetation index during 1981 to 1999. J Geophys Res 106:20069–20084

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Scientific Research Foundation for Dr., Shandong University of Technology (408020). The NDVI data were provided by Quan Wang from Shizuoka University, Japan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Environment Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zhangdian Zhangzhou 12, Zibo, 255049, China

    Meng Meng

  2. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Hans-Knoell-Str. 10, P.O. Box 100164, 07701, Jena, Germany

    Jian Ni

  3. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan Nanxincun 20, Beijing, 100093, China

    Jian Ni

  4. Zibo Vocational Institute, Xiqu Liantong, Zibo, 255314, China

    Meijuan Zong

Authors
  1. Meng Meng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jian Ni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Meijuan Zong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Meng Meng.

About this article

Cite this article

Meng, M., Ni, J. & Zong, M. Impacts of changes in climate variability on regional vegetation in China: NDVI-based analysis from 1982 to 2000. Ecol Res 26, 421–428 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-011-0801-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-011-0801-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation