Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Spatiotemporal variations of vegetation cover on the Chinese Loess Plateau (1981–2006): Impacts of climate changes and human activities

  • Published:
Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Spatiotemporal variations of Chinese Loess Plateau vegetation cover during 1981–2006 have been investigated using GIMMS and SPOT VGT NDVI data and the cause of vegetation cover changes has been analyzed, considering the climate changes and human activities. Vegetation cover changes on the Loess Plateau have experienced four stages as follows: (1) vegetation cover showed a continued increasing phase during 1981–1989; (2) vegetation cover changes came into a relative steady phase with small fluctuations during 1990–1998; (3) vegetation cover declined rapidly during 1999–2001; and (4) vegetation cover increased rapidly during 2002–2006. The vegetation cover changes of the Loess Plateau show a notable spatial difference. The vegetation cover has obviously increased in the Inner Mongolia and Ningxia plain along the Yellow River and the ecological rehabilitated region of Ordos Plateau, however the vegetation cover evidently decreased in the hilly and gully areas of Loess Plateau, Liupan Mountains region and the northern hillside of Qinling Mountains. The response of NDVI to climate changes varied with different vegetation types. NDVI of sandy land vegetation, grassland and cultivated land show a significant increasing trend, but forest shows a decreasing trend. The results obtained in this study show that the spatiotemporal variations of vegetation cover are the outcome of climate changes and human activities. Temperature is a control factor of the seasonal change of vegetation growth. The increased temperature makes soil drier and unfavors vegetation growth in summer, but it favors vegetation growth in spring and autumn because of a longer growing period. There is a significant correlation between vegetation cover and precipitation and thus, the change in precipitation is an important factor for vegetation variation. The improved agricultural production has resulted in an increase of NDVI in the farmland, and the implementation of large-scale vegetation construction has led to some beneficial effect in ecology.

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

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Sun H Y, Wang C Y, Niu Z, et al. Analysis of the vegetation cover change and the relationship between NDVI and environmental factors by using NOAA time series dsata. J Remote Sens (in Chinese), 1998, 2(3): 205–210

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ma M G, Wang J, Wang X M. Advance in the inter-annual variability of vegetation and its relation to climate based on remote sensing. J Remote Sens (in Chinese), 2006, 10(6): 421–429

    Google Scholar 

  3. Myneni R B, Keeling C D, Tucker C J, et al. Increased plant growth in the northern high latitudes from 1981–1999. Nature, 1997, 386: 698–702

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Myneni R B, Tucker C J, Asar G, et al. Interannual variations in satellite-sensed vegetation index data from 1981 to 1991. J Geophys Res, 1998, 103(6): 6145–6160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Zhou L, Tucker C J, Kaufmann R K, et al. Variations in northern vegetation activity inferred from satellite data of vegetation index during 1981–1999. J Geophys Res, 2001, 106(17): 20069–20083

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Nemani R, Keeling C, Hashimoto H, et al. Climate-driven increases in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 1982 to 1999. Science, 2003, 300: 1560–1563

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Fang J Y, Piao S L, He J S, et al. Increasing terrestrial vegetation activity in China, 1982–1999. Sci China Ser C, 2004, 47(3): 229–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Piao S L, Fang J Y. Dynamic vegetation cover changes over the last 18 years in China. Quat Sci (in Chinese), 2001, 21(4): 294–302

    Google Scholar 

  9. Piao S L, Fang J Y. Seasonal changes in vegetation activity in response to climate changes in China between 1982 and 1999. Acta Geogr Sin (in Chinese), 2003, 58(1): 1199–1125

    Google Scholar 

  10. Chen X Q, Yu R. Spatiotemporal variations of the vegetation growing season in warm-temperate Eastern China during 1982 to 1999. Acta Geogr Sin (in Chinese), 2007, 62(1): 41–51

    Google Scholar 

  11. Ma M G, Dong L X, Wang X M. Study on the dynamically monitoring and simulating the vegetation cover in northwest China in the past 21 years. J Glac Geocry (in Chinese), 2003, 25(2): 232–236

    Google Scholar 

  12. Liang S H, Chen J, Jin X M, et al. Regularity of vegetation coverage changes in the Tibetan Plateau over the last 21 years. Adv Earth Sci (in Chinese), 2007, 22(1): 33–40

    Google Scholar 

  13. Xu X K, Chen H, Zhang F. Temporal and spatial change of vegetation cover in the northwest of China and factors analysis influencing on vegetation variation. Chin Environ Sci (in Chinese), 28(1): 41–47

  14. Eklundh L. Estimating relations between AVHRR NDVI and rainfall in East Africa at 102 day and monthly time scales. Int J Remote Sens, 1998, 19(3): 563–568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Li B G, Tao S. Relation between AVHRR NDVI and climate factors. Acta Ecol Sin (in Chinese), 2000, 20: 898–902

    Google Scholar 

  16. Chen Y H, Li X B, Shi P J. Variation in NDVI driven by climate factors across China, 1983–1992. Acta Phytoecol Sin (in Chinese), 2001, 25(6), 716–720

    Google Scholar 

  17. Li X B, Chen Y H, Zhang Y X, et al. Impact of climate changes on desert steppe in northern China. Adv Earth Sci (in Chinese), 2002, 17(2): 254–261

    Google Scholar 

  18. Gong D Y, Shi P J, He X Z. Spatial features of the coupling between spring NDVI and temperature over Northern hemisphere. Acta Geogr Sin (in Chinese), 2002, 57(5): 505–514

    Google Scholar 

  19. Gong D Y, Shi P J. Northern hemispheric NDVI variations associated with large-scale climate indices in spring. J Remote Sens, 2003, 24(12): 2559–2566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Piao S L, Fang J Y, Chen A P. Seasonal dynamics of terrestrial net primary production in response to climate changes in China. Acta Bot Sin, 2003, 45(3): 269–275

    Google Scholar 

  21. Yang J P, Ding Y J, Chen R S. NDVI Reflection of alpine vegetation changes in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. Acta Geogr Sin (in Chinese), 2005, 60(3): 467–478

    Google Scholar 

  22. Zhang W J, Gao Z Q. Spatial variation of water/thermal elements and NDVI with altitudes in central and eastern Tibetan Plateau. Geogra Res (in Chinese), 2006, 25(5): 877–886

    Google Scholar 

  23. Fu X F, Yang S T, Liu C M. Changes of NDVI and their relations with principal climatic factors in the Yarlung Zangbo River basin. Geogra Res (in Chinese), 2007, 26(1): 60–65

    Google Scholar 

  24. Li X B, Shi P J. Sensitivity analysis of variation in NDVI, temperature and precipitation in typical vegetation types across China. Acta Phytoecol Sin (in Chinese), 2000, 24(3): 379–382

    Google Scholar 

  25. Li J, Lewis J, Rowland J, et al. Evaluation of land performance in Senegal using multi-temporal NDVI and rainfall series. J Arid Environ, 2004, 59: 463–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Deng Z P, Guo N, Wang J M, et al. Vegetation cover variation in northwest China during the past 22 years. J Glac Geocry (in Chinese), 2006, 28(5): 686–693

    Google Scholar 

  27. Sun R, Liu C M, Zhu Q J. Relationship between the fractional vegetation cover change and rainfall in the Yellow River basin. Acta Geogr Sin (in Chinese), 2001, 56(6): 667–672

    Google Scholar 

  28. Li C H, Yang Z F. Spatiotemporal changes of NDVI and their relations with precipitation and runoff in the Yellow River basin. Geogra Res (in Chinese), 2004, 23(6): 753–759

    Google Scholar 

  29. Yang S T, Liu C M, Sun R. The vegetation cover over last 20 years in Yellow river basin. Acta Geogr Sin (in Chinese), 2002, 57(6): 679–684

    Google Scholar 

  30. Liu L Z, Xiao J F. Spatial-temporal correlations of NDVI with precipitation and temperature in Yellow river basin. Chin J Ecol (in Chinese), 2006, 25(5): 477–481

    Google Scholar 

  31. Yang X, Yan J P. Analysis on the climate warming-drying trend in the juncture of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Arid Zone Res (in Chinese), 2002, 19(3): 67–70

    Google Scholar 

  32. Yao Y B, Wang Y R, Li Y H, et al. Climate warming and drying and its environmental effects in the Loess Plateau. Resour Sci (in Chinese), 2005, 27(5): 146–152

    Google Scholar 

  33. Liu X Q, Zhao J B, Yu X F. Study on the climatic warming-drying trend in the Loess Plateau and the countermeasures. Arid Zone Res (in Chinese), 2006, 23(4): 627–631

    Google Scholar 

  34. Pinzon J. Using HHT to successfully uncouple seasonal and interannual components in remotely sensed data. SCI 2002. Conference Proceedings July 14–18. Orlando, Florida

  35. Tucker C J, Pinzon J E, Brown M E, et al. An Extended AVHRR 8-km NDVI Data Set Compatible with MODIS and SPOT Vegetation NDVI Data. Int J Remote Sens, 2005, 26(20): 4485–4498

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Zhou L, Kaufmann R K, Tian Y, et al. Relation between interannual variations in satellite measures of northern forest greenness and climate between 1982 and 1999. J Geophys Res, 2003, 108(1): 1029–2002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Pizon J, Brown M E, Tucker C J. Satellite time series correction of orbital drift artifacts using empirical mode decomposition. In: Huang N, eds. Hilbert-Huang Transform: Introduction and Applications, Chapter 10, Part II. Applications, Hackensack: World Scientific, 2004

    Google Scholar 

  38. Liu J Y, Liu M L, Zhuang D F, et al. Study on spatial pattern of land-use change in China during 1995–2000. Sci China Ser D-Earth Sci, 2003, 46(4): 373–384

    Google Scholar 

  39. Song Y, Ma M G. Study on vegetation cover change in northeast China based on SPOT vegetation data. Deserts China (in Chinese), 2007, 27(1): 89–94

    Google Scholar 

  40. Li Y S. Effect of forest on water cycle on the Loess Plateau. J Nat Resour (in Chinese), 2001, 16(5): 427–432

    Google Scholar 

  41. Xu X K, Lin Z H, Xue F, et al. correlation analysis between meteorological factors and the ratio of vegetation cover. Acta Ecol Sin (in Chinese), 2003, 23(2): 221–229

    Google Scholar 

  42. Vicente-Serrano S M, Lasanta T, Romo Alfredo. Analysis of spatiotemporal evolution of vegetation cover in the Spanish central Pyrenees: Role of human management. Environ Manage, 2005, 34(6): 802–818

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Madelene Ostwald, Chen D L. Land-use change: Impacts of climate variations and policies among small-scale farmers in the Loess Plateau, China. Land Use Policy, 2006, 23(4): 361–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Xu J X. Effect of the changing rural socio-economic factors on sediment yield of the Jialing River basin. J Mount Sci (in Chinese), 2006, 24(4): 385–394

    Google Scholar 

  45. Statistic Bureau of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. 1987–2006 Statistical Yearbook of Inner Mongolia (in Chinese). Beijing: China Statistics Press, 2006

    Google Scholar 

  46. Sun Z H, Luo Lin, Li X Y. Remote sensing in monitoring the vegetation variation in the north of northern Shaanxi as well as its influence on the runoff. Shaanxi Forest Sci Tech (in Chinese), 2006, (4): 1–5

  47. Li Z F, Li X M, Cai Y L, et al. Study of land cover change in Yulin district based on spot vegetation. Arid Land Resour Environ (in Chinese), 2007, 21(2): 56–59

    Google Scholar 

  48. Statistical Bureau of Shaanxi Province. 2000–2006 Statistical YearBook of Shaanxi (in Chinese). Beiing: China Statistics Press, 2006

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xin ZhongBao, Xu JiongXin & Zheng Wei

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

    Xin ZhongBao & Zheng Wei

Authors
  1. Xin ZhongBao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xu JiongXin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zheng Wei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xin ZhongBao.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40671019) and the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Xin, Z., Xu, J. & Zheng, W. Spatiotemporal variations of vegetation cover on the Chinese Loess Plateau (1981–2006): Impacts of climate changes and human activities. Sci. China Ser. D-Earth Sci. 51, 67–78 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-007-0137-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-007-0137-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation